SMYRNA - A year ago, the Campbell boys remember Centennial ending their season in the Region 6AAAAA tournament. Now they can reflect on beating Centennial for a chance to play for the region title.

Stellar free throw shooting and big defensive stops in the fourth quarter played a big role in the Spartans' 68-60 upset over the Knights in the tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon at Wills Gym.

The Spartans will now face Milton, which beat Wheeler 72-71 in overtime in the other semifinal, tonight at 8:30 p.m. for the 6AAAAA championship. Centennial will battle Wheeler in the consolation game for the third and fourth seeds for the Class AAAAA state tournament.

"Centennial has been a top two or three team all year, and we really haven't been able to match up with them," Campbell coach James Gwyn said. "Last year we played them in an (region tournament) elimination game and we didn't show up. This is good for our kids. We kind of weathered the storm. We had a little bit of a lead, they came back and took the lead and we didn't hang our heads."

The Spartans kept their heads up by hitting free throws in the clutch.

With the score knotted at 55-55 with less than 2 minutes to play in the fourth, Cotton gave Campbell the lead for good with a pair of foul shots at the 1:14 mark. The Spartans forced a turnover on Centennial's next position, and Cotton hit two more free throws to take a 59-55 lead with 48 seconds left. Another defensive stop by the Spartans forced Centennial to foul and again, and Justin Haffad answered with a pair of free throws.

After the Knights cut it to three on a three-point play by Devonta White, Cotton was perfect from the foul line again, which upped the Spartan lead to 63-58.

But Centennial would not go away. The Knights cut it back to three points on a putback by Nathan Harries. After Haffad hit one of two foul shots with 19 seconds left to push the lead to four, Gwyn called timeout to set his defense.

Gwyn's plan was to contain White, who led Centennial with 23 points, and Jack Shanks rebounded a missed shot by Centennial to seal the victory.

"With 30 to 40 seconds to go, White came down and made a three-point play and I felt we really weren't set on 'D'," Gwyn said. "We just wanted to trap White and play man-to-man."