ELLICOTT CITY, MD — It took only five seconds for Centennial's Connor Clemens to make a memory that he'll keep for the rest of his life on Monday night.
With three seconds remaining on the clock and his team trailing visiting River Hill, 48-47, in the 3A East regional finals, Clemens watched helplessly as his teammate's deflected shot clanged off the bottom of the rim.
Then, in an instant, Clemens found the ball in his own hands when teammate Chad Strothers saved the carom from trickling out of bounds.
Moments later, the packed Centennial gymnasium was chanting Clemens' name as he was lifted into air by a crowd of his classmates to cut down the net.
What happened in between was something that Clemens will never quite be able to put into words, and something that he'll never forget.
"It just happened that I got the ball with not much time. I put it up and it went in," said Clemens, whose buzzer beater gave the Eagles a 49-48 win and the 3A East regional championship. "I had no idea (how much time was left). I just wanted to get a shot up and hopefully it went in … it felt pretty good. I just let it go."
River Hill, which led 29-27 at halftime, took a 48-45 lead with 68 seconds left on a layup by Charlie Thomas. But Centennial's Tom Brown scored on a put back 10 seconds later, and the Hawks missed the front end of three one-and-ones in the final 22 seconds to give Centennial a chance.
"They were playing well the whole game, I've got to give it to them ... I was hoping that they would miss (the free throws)," Clemens said. "We got the ball and went down the court and it happened to come to me and I made it. This was pretty up there. I think it might be my number one (moment)."
Isaiah White scored a game-high 22 points for the Eagles, including two free throws followed by a steal and a lay-up in a five-second span to give his team a 45-43 lead with 2:45 remaining.
"We were outplayed for the majority of the game and we were very fortunate to come up with the last ball for the last shot," Centennial coach Chad Hollwedel said. "I don't even know what happened. It was crazy. It trickled out to Connor, Connor hit it, and that was game."
Centennial will now play 3A North champ C. Milton Wright at the Xfinity Center on the University of Maryland campus on Thursday, March 12, at 5 p.m.
The Mustangs defeated Millford Mill, 66-65, to earn their spot in the state tournament.
This is Centennial's first regional title since 2012, when it lost in the state semifinals.
"It's pretty special. I remember my freshman year, we had a couple of guys on the team go to Comcast at the time and that was pretty sweet," Clemens said. "I'm glad that we've come full circle and we're back there ... we've still got two more games, hopefully. It's going to be fun."
Centennial 49, River Hill 48
RH: Thomas 18, Sandler 13, Clark 4, Martin 4, Borucki 3, Gabel 3, Mentle 3.
C: I. White 22, Brown 10, Clemens 9, Merkey 3, Strothers 3, Geist 2.
Half: RH 29-27