Noah Furtado is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Carl Hayden for AZPreps365.com

It was the 5A Metro Region Basketball Championship.

Carl Hayden vs. Central.

The winner would secure a play-in game for the Arizona Interscholastic Association State Tournament.

The Falcons were one sideline inbounds play from the end of a must-win game they trailed 73-71.

Seconds remained.

And Tamar Johnson II, a freshman whose name was called off the bench to replace a fouled-out teammate down the stretch, stood in the corner.

“I just made eye contact with coach, and I was like, I might as well take it,” Johnson said.

As Carl Hayden head coach Rodney Brown looked on, Johnson sprinted off a baseline screen that freed him up for a potential winning 3-point shot — that shook the bottom of the net.

“The basketball gods gave us a big one,” Johnson said.

A blowout season-ending loss to Gilbert Higley days later on Feb. 11 ended Johnson’s freshman campaign, but it was only the start of what “Deuce” and his father had planned.

Tamar Johnson Sr. raised his son on the sport that earned him an opportunity to play for Utah State at the Division I level, a goal Deuce adopted during a period from third grade through middle school when Johnson Sr., served as his coach. And even while being a mere spectator for the beginning of Deuce’s high school career, Johnson Sr. was ever-present for games and practices as if he was a member of Brown’s staff.

After the season, Johnson Sr. told Deuce he was proud of what he’d done.

But neither knew that such a fulfilling exchange was among him and his dad’s final memories together.

Johnson Sr. passed away later that February.

“To me, the hardest part was we had always talked about winning a state championship in high school, so since we lost in the first round watching everybody else play, it was definitely tough because I wanted us to be able to experience that together,” Deuce said.

Basketball was more than jumps shots, crossovers and layups for the two. It was their thing — and still is.

“With honoring him and continuing to have those moments is through his basketball,” said Valerie Brown, Deuce’s mother. “I think that in the beginning, it was hard for him, but once he processed his initial anger with the situation, he was able to see that with family and his memory and what they enjoyed together, that he could still move forward and not necessarily mean that he's forgetting.”

The future they constructed together remains intact, but the accountability Deuce was once held to is now of his own responsibility as he works to complete the aspirations his dad helped him realize amid a sophomore season in which he’s embraced a starting role.

“Whenever I do certain things, I just know, 'Oh, he would've said this or he would've said that,’” Deuce said. “So it's definitely installed in me, you could say, at this point. I'm always going to know what he's going to say or what he's thinking. It's crazy because I thought about it the other day, I say it to myself like, 'Man, your Pops would've said this, your Pops would've said that.' He's definitely in me, for sure, every time I step onto the court.”

Deuce is by no means alone.

Beyond his father’s lasting effect, he’s been blessed with an entire south Phoenix community of supporters that include his coach, mother and droves of others who loved and respected the late Johnson Sr.

“He has more than just me around,” Rodney Brown said. “There's a big circle in south Phoenix. Everybody's looking out for this kid. His dad's funeral was packed, and he had so many uncles, so many people that want to look out for this kid.”