After the players had filed out of the locker room and the television cameras had stopped recording, North Central High School basketball coach Doug Mitchell turned to give his wife, Debbie, a hug.
Then he posed a question.
"How the heck did we do that?" the veteran coach asked.
Debbie didn't have an answer, other than a head shake and a smile. A crowd of 3,400 fans were asking the same question after North Central stunned Hamilton Southeastern with a 78-68 overtime win in Class 4A Sectional 8 on Wednesday night.
It wasn't that North Central won the game; it was how the Panthers did it. Sixth-ranked Hamilton Southeastern led by 15 points late in the third quarter and by eight with 3 minutes left.
Enter senior Darius Latham, the closest thing to an answer to Mitchell's question. The 6-6 Indiana football recruit put the team on his back down the stretch, scoring 14 points in the final 4:55 of regulation.
Latham even stepped out and made two 3-pointers when North Central (15-5) had to have them, the second cutting HSE's lead to 65-62 with 58 seconds left.
"I felt like they weren't really respecting my jumper," said Latham, who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. "So I had to knock them down."
Latham saved his biggest heroics for the final play of regulation. After Zak Irvin made the second of two free throws with 6.5 seconds left to give HSE a 66-64 lead, Royals coach Brian Satterfield called timeout to set up his defense.
North Central guard Wes Stowers drove full speed to the top of the key. He passed over a defender to Latham, who maneuvered past Ross Risley and Irvin to lay the ball off the glass and through as time expired, sending the game to overtime.
"The idea was just to get me isolated up top so I could get to the bucket," Latham said.
North Central rode the wave of momentum from there, outscoring HSE (17-4) by 10 in the 4-minute overtime period. It was a measure of revenge for North Central, which lost to HSE during the season and in a heartbreaker to the Royals last year in the sectional when Gary Harris banked in a 35-foot shot at the buzzer.
"Those guys have no quit in them," Mitchell said of his team. "I don't like being down 12 or 15. We've done it several times, but they don't ever think they are going to lose."
North Central will play Fishers in a semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Fishers defeated Westfield 53-39 in Wednesday's opener.
GALLERY: Fishers 53, Westfield 39.
Zak Irvin had 29 points and 10 rebounds in his final high school game to lead HSE. Eric Davidson added 13 points.
"It's a special team that worked so hard and could have made a run," HSE coach Brian Satterfield said.
Irvin was in tears after the game, an emotional moment for the Michigan recruit who is a top contender for IndyStar Mr. Basketball.
"After (Eric) Gordon, he's the best high school basketball player I've ever seen," Mitchell said. "That guy is unreal. The way he can handle the ball and create shots ... he's tireless. He's going to make a lot of money some day playing the game."
Jaylon Brown led Fishers with 16 points in the opening game Wednesday night. The Tigers pulled away in the third quarter after a spectacular dunk by the 6-foot Brown, an Evansville recruit.
"That gave us some energy," Fishers coach Joe Leonard said.
MOBILE LINK TO GALLERY: North Central 78, HSE 68 in OT.
MOBILE LINK TO GALLERY: Fishers 53, Westfield 39.
Fishers 53, Westfield 39
| Fishers | 5 | 14 | 16 | 18 | -- | 53 |
| Westfield | 7 | 9 | 5 | 18 | -- | 39 |
Fishers -- Brown 6 4-6 16, Fleming 0 0-1 0, Lonergan 3 0-6 6, Chaudion 6 0-0 12, Johnson 4 4-6 13, Townsend 2 0-0 4, Schneider 0 0-0 0, Dollison 0 0-0 0, Coe 1 0-0 2, Belmontes 0 0-0 0, Eaton 0 0-0 0. 3-pointers: Johnson. Totals: 22 8-19 53.
Westfield -- Osswald 0 0-0 0, Calhoun 1 0-2 2, Lawton 5 6-7 19, Ferrer 0 0-0 0, Shaw 2 0-1 4, Kinney 1 0-0 2, Albright 2 0-0 4, Reece 3 0-0 6, Riemersma 0 0-0 0, Otto 0 0-0 0, Jones 1 0-0 2. 3-pointers: Lawton 3. Totals: 15 6-10 39.
North Central 78, Hamilton Southeastern 68
| North Central | 14 | 8 | 15 | 29 | 12 | -- | 78 |
| Hamilton Southeastern | 13 | 15 | 22 | 16 | 2 | -- | 68 |
North Central -- Stallings 0 1-2 1, Gordon 4 6-9 16, Harris 0 0-0 0, Poindexter 8 0-0 16, Latham 8 1-1 19, Stowers 6 0-3 12, Lesure 3 0-0 8, Walker 0 0-0 0, Loggan 2 0-0 4, Rowe 0 0-0 0, Banks 1 0-0 2. 3-pointers: Lesure 2, Gordon 2, Latham 2. Totals: 32 8-15 78.
Hamilton Southeastern -- Furlin 1 2-2 5, Irvin 11 4-6 29, Jenkins 3 2-3 9, Davidson 5 0-0 13, Risely 3 0-0 6, Troeger 0 0-0 0, Barksdale 1 0-0 2, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Janney 0 0-0 0, Wethington 0 0-0 0. 3-pointers: Irvin 3, Davidson 3, Furlin, Jenkins. Totals: 25 10-13 68.
