By Jeff Halpern

HOT SPRINGS — It took until the final seconds of Friday night’s Class 1A state championship game for County Line to make good on its bid for redemption.

Cooper Watson scored on a feed from Trent Johnson as time ran out to give County Line (45-0) a 46-44 victory over Marked Tree (29-4) in front of an announced crowd of 2,415 at Bank OZK Arena. 

A year ago, County Line lost 44-41 to Bradley when Tydese Harris made a three-pointer with three seconds left to put Bradley up 44-41. However, by the time County Line inbounded the ball there was only 1.5 seconds remaining. Indians’ head coach Joe Brunson, along with the County Line faithful, appeared to attempt to make his case to the refs that there should be more time, but it stood as is.
