A storage tarp.

The elevated storage system, in common use at many high schools, is designed to hold rolled-up wrestling mats when they're not in use, suspended above a gym floor.

Thursday night at Carrboro High School, the storage tarp was hit by an attempted full-court pass in every game -- girls and boys. It played a pivotal role in Carrboro's 74-72 victory over visiting Granville Central in the nightcap.

Carrboro, which took the see-saw game's biggest lead, 72-66 on back-to-back baskets by Kevin vanName late in the fourth quarter, was clinging to a two-point edge with 2.0 seconds left to play when the Panthers' Tevin Estes lobbed a inbounds pass directly into the tarp.

Granville Central coach Mike McDaniel instantly queried the officials about possession, but was told that a ball into the tarp was the same as it hitting any out-of-bounds object.

"You knew it was there," the referee said to McDaniels, noting that the Panthers had been the recipient of a Carrboro turnover on exactly the same situation in the first half.

The Jaguars were able to inbound the ball under their own basket and run out the game's last seconds.

Afterwards, Carrboro athletics director April Ross thumbed through the rule book, which was full of directions about scoreboards and scorers' tables, but could find no guidelines on storage units. It mattered little to McDaniel, who exited across the Jaguars' gym floor with a Willy Loman shuffle.

"I should have held for the last shot," he muttered repeatedly.

Granville Central (10-7, 6-3) had given itself plenty of chances in a game where the score was tied or changed hands 32 times.

The Panthers tied it for the last time at 72-72 on a layup by Tevin Hester with 1:51 left in the game.

After consecutive Carrboro misses from a crowded lane, Granville Central got the ball back with 54 seconds left and opted to go quickly for the lead; knifing for the basket, Hester slipped and Carrboro's McLean Phipps scooped up the ball.

After a timeout to set up a final play, Carrboro tried to work the ball back into the well-defended lane but then kicked it out to Tykeem Woodard along the baseline, who nailed a fade-away jumper from about 15 feet away for the game-winner with 0.8 seconds showing on the scoreboard.

"They were all over the lane," Carrboro wing Marlin Johnson said. "Ty stepped up and hit a big one."

Carrboro (11-5 overall, 9-1 Carolina-12) bounced back from a 79-68 conference loss to Northwood to stay within one game behind Durham School of the Arts and Northwood in their conference's regular-season race.

The 6-6 vanName, who finished with a game-high 29 points and 16 rebounds for Carrboro, said the Jaguars would circle the Jan. 31 rematch with Northwood on their calendars.

"This was tough tonight," he said. "But we know Northwood will be big."

Phipps added 11 points for Carrboro, while Johnson had nine and Woodard finished with eight points.

Hester led the Panthers with 21; Cedric Peace had 15, and Marcus Mclean and Martin Alston each had 10.

Granville Central 59, Carrboro 47

In the girls' game (which, yes, featured a pass hurled into the suspended tarp,) Carrboro fell behind 22-6 early and never could catch up, falling 59-47 to Granville Central.

Down 28-17 at halftime, the Jaguars were within 35-29 at the start of the fourth quarter and later got baskets by Diamond Tyson, Lynette Mason and Anna Broome -- all from the paint -- to make it 45-43 with 3:40 to play.

Central hit 10 of 13 free throws in the game's last 3:35 to pull away.

Keena Evans scored 20 points to lead Central (14-3, 8-1) to its fourth straight win. Tyson led Carrboro (9-7, 6-3) with 21.