Junior Aliyah Myers ran after the basketball down the court at Koch Arena, shot the layup — and it went in.

The Derby fans at Koch Arena erupted with noise, and the last 2.6 seconds quickly disappeared. Derby (22-1) beat Wichita South 42-40 on Myers’ shot and will play Olathe East (24-0) for the Class 6A title at 4 p.m. today.

A crowd of teammates surrounded Myers, who started to cry.

“Kennedy (Brown) threw it out far, I just tried to go get it, grab it with two hands and go up strong,” Myers said.

The Panthers are in the title game for the second straight year. The last thing they want is to make another comeback like they did on Friday — and in the 2017 championship, when their late run fell just short.

“I think it’s time to get redemption,” Brown said, “We’re going to come out strong and give it our all. After this fight we know we can fight back from anything, and I think we proved that last year, too. So it’s really just about playing good defense and getting it going early and win strong.”

Friday’s semifinal victory was a thrilling ending that seemed out of reach for most of the game.

The Panthers trailed until the 31-second mark in the third quarter, and getting to the last 10 seconds of the win wasn’t easy.

Derby beat South in January at the City League vs. AV-CTL challenge, and players believed they would meet the Titans again.

South coach Antwain Scales has “been on a roar since that game and really kind of changed some of the things that he did,” Derby coach Jodie Karsak said.

Derby junior Tor’e Alford made a three pointer within the first 45 seconds. It was her only shot of the game, and she had limited playing time in the second half after racking up four personal fouls.

By the start of the second quarter, Derby trailed 17-6.

But that’s when Brown took over. She scored all 10 points for the Panthers, although they still trailed 28-16 at the half.

“The first half we didn’t really have our defensive energy,” Brown said, “We came in at halftime and coach told us we needed to bring the intensity up, get after it more, win all the 50/50 balls. I think we came out and really executed that in the third quarter and that’s what kind of sparked our comeback.”

Halfway through the third quarter, Derby went on a 14-0 run, some of which Brown missed due to a bloody nose.

The run brought the Panthers from a 12-point deficit to leading by two points to start the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth, South scored to end its seven-minute scoring drought.

With the score tied, Derby made three free throws — the Panthers were 11 of 18 from the line — and that helped them take a 40-36 lead with the help of Brown’s only three-pointer and Myers.

Brown finished with 23 points — scoring over half the team’s 42 points. Myers had eight.

“They took the first swing, and instead of punching back we absorbed it,” Karsak said, “I’ll take the blame for the game plan in the first half. We switched things up and executed it and got it done.”