Falmouth’s Ezra Hamlin celebrates after his late 3-pointer gave the Navigators a lead they wouldn't relinquish in the Class A South final Friday against Noble. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

The stars heated up and repeatedly made clutch shots. But it was Falmouth High that had just enough extra contributions.

The result? No. 2 Falmouth won a thrilling Class A South boys basketball final Friday against No. 1 Noble, 56-53, at the Portland Expo.

Falmouth had unlikely shot-makers in the final minute of a game that came down to the final shot.

Jaxon Cameron gave Falmouth its final margin by making two free throws with 8.3 seconds to play, the first bouncing on the rim a bit.

“By the time playoffs come, everyone’s just playing their best. You’ve got to expect that, too,” said Cameron, one of Falmouth’s 11 seniors. “Their players played great. We also played great.”

Noble senior standout Jamier Rose got a good look at a right-wing 3-pointer to force overtime but was a touch long, hitting the back of the rim.

“You can’t have a better look at the end of the game,” said Noble coach John Morgan. “It did look good and the heart sank when it hit the side of the rim, the side of the back of the rim.”

No. 2 Falmouth (18-3) claimed its third Class A South title in the last four seasons and will look for its first state title since 2015 on Friday at the Augusta Civic Center against North champion Messalonskee (18-2).

Falmouth senior standouts Davis Mann and Billy Birks each scored 17 points. Rose and his top senior running mate, Bryce Guitard, scored 24 and 20 points, respectively.

Falmouth’s Ezra Hamlin made the biggest shot, though. He got an open look at the top of the key, and despite being an inside player who had scored only four points in the game and who had made “maybe two or three” 3-pointers this season, he took the shot. The ball went over the outstretched arm of Noble’s 6-foot-7 center, Andrew Marzoli, and swished through for a 50-48 lead with 1:03 to play.

“I saw they were playing off me and I felt it in me. I felt like I had it in me, and the moment I shot it, I knew it was going in,” Hamlin said.

When Morgan was asked about Hamlin’s shot in the Expo’s quiet basement hallway, at first he could only shake his head.

“The game plan all night is there big guys don’t shoot a lot of 3s, and in that case, he stepped up,” Morgan sad. “It was kind of a tough five-point swing. We get the illegal screen call, when we’re in the bonus, kind of trying to close it out there, and they come down and bang that one. We weren’t expecting him to shoot it from NBA range.”

After a defensive stop, Falmouth reserve David Graiver (six points) scored inside for a 52-48 lead.

Rose and Birks traded two free throws, then Guitard hit a 3-pointer to cut Falmouth’s lead to 54-53 with 10.6 seconds to play, setting the stage for Cameron’s free throws and the final miss by Rose, one of the top candidates for Mr. Maine Basketball honors after winning the Fitzpatrick Trophy as Maine’s best senior high school football player.

Three baskets by Rose at the rim and one of Guitard’s four 3-pointers spearheaded an 11-3 third-quarter run by Noble to build a 36-29 lead. That’s when Mann asserted himself. The 6-3 guard was coming off a 39-point semifinal effort but had been held mostly in check until he converted consecutive three-point plays with a tough basket and free throw, quickly cutting Noble’s lead to 36-35. Noble led 42-39 after three quarters, and the fourth quarter had two ties and three lead changes.

In two regular-season games, both teams won at home, Noble taking a 54-52 victory and Falmouth winning 54-51. Like Friday night, the losing team in each game had the ball at the end but missed a shot at the buzzer.

“We talked about it was going to come down to one possession. We talked about that even before the game started,” said Falmouth coach David Halligan. “Because they’re a good team, we’re a good team and it’s going to be a tough game all the way through and you can’t lose your focus. We went down by seven and they refocused and just kept plugging away, one possession at a time.”

Noble (18-3) lost in the regional final for the second consecutive year. The Knights have never won a regional basketball title and were a doormat in Class A and AA for decades before the emergence of Rose and Guitard, who were both four-year starters.

“We’re not going to feel this now, but in a month or when they graduate, they’re going to look back on what they did as a program and (how) they were able to take a bottom-feeder, a non-talked-about program, and made them extremely relevant,” Morgan said. “Playing in a regional final, it’s the top four teams in the whole state for your division, and we were able to do that twice. I mean, we were hoping to get one of these, but what these guys have done from the absolute bottom to this has been spectacular.”