West Limestone's River Helms drives to the basket in a game earlier this year against Priceville. Helms and the Wildcats will face Booker T. Washington in the state semifinals at 4:30 p.m. today.

A miraculous comeback against Deshler in the sub-regional round of the playoffs gave West Limestone a second chance at a state championship. The Wildcats players have taken that chance and run with it, and now find themselves just two wins away from a title.

A state championship seemed unlikely two weeks ago, as West Limestone entered the sub-regional game with a 17-13 record and a runner-up finish in Class 4A, Area 15 after losing to Brooks in the area tournament final.

The state title dream went from unlikely to next to impossible as Deshler raced out to a 50-31 lead through three quarters. It looked like West’s season would end before the regional tournament once again.

But it was at that point that senior Chayse Carter looked at fellow senior Braden Tuten and said ‘This is not our last game.’ Then, the Wildcats went out and proved it, outscoring Deshler 31-10 in the fourth quarter to take an unlikely 62-60 victory.

Since then, West has rolled, defeating Curry 51-26 and Brooks 58-54 in the Northwest Regional Tournament to advance to the Class 4A State Tournament for the first time since winning the state title in 2015. The Wildcats will face Booker T. Washington at 4:30 p.m. today at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena at the BJCC.

“The momentum and confidence we got from that (Deshler) game is something we’ve been playing off of since then,” West Limestone coach Justin Taylor said. “We’ve had our best practices of the year since then. It’s hard to practice at this time of year because they’ve been practicing for such a long time. But they are so focused at practices right now, and this is a group of kids that aren’t naturally focused.”

That focus and confidence showed in the regional final against Brooks. The Wildcats played fast and loose, and took the game to Deshler, constantly driving to the basket for layups and winning most of the 50-50 balls.

West shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the game, and held Brooks to just 38.6 percent shooting. The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, but West missed nine free throws in the final two minutes of the game to keep Brooks in it before finally hanging on to win by four.

“That Deshler game I really think did give us the confidence to realize if we’ll do everything the right way, we’ve got a chance to win every night,” Taylor said.

The Wildcats (20-13) will need to keep that confidence against a formidable Booker T. Washington team. The Golden Eagles (20-9) are the Southeast Regional champions, defeating Dale County 67-56 in the semifinal and Handley 68-59 in the final.

“Booker T. Washington is very big and athletic,” Taylor said. “They have two post players who just dominate the paint in every game they play. I don’t know what they’re listed at, but they’re huge. They’ll play a zone defense with those two guys at the basket, which means we’ve got to make shots, but we do have the ability to make shots.”

Taylor said West Limestone will not want to rely on the Deshler game strategy again.

“We don’t want to get down 21 against these guys,” he said with a laugh. “We’ve got to be patient against them, because against them, you get one chance. They don’t give up offensive rebounds. With Booker T. Washington, you get one shot on each possession, so you have to make the most of it.”