BIRMINGHAM —

Cullman officially stole the show Saturday at Samford.

Lawson Schaffer absolutely stepped up in the Steel City spotlight, willing the Bearcats to a heartstopping upset of Class 7A No. 1 Mountain Brook with a fourth quarter for the ages.

Schaffer set the stage for Cullman’s 72-71 stunner with back-to-back treys from Timbuktu and then put the nail in the Spartans’ coffin with the smoothest of mid-range stepbacks with just 10 seconds left.

The party started on the floor a clutch defensive stop later, spilling over to the hallway outside the court and, eventually, to the locker room.

The Black and Gold later fell 84-58 to 5A No. 2 Faith Academy in the semifinals, but it did little to dampen Schaffer’s epic fourth quarter against Mountain Brook.

“I can’t even put into words how I feel right now,” said Schaffer, who sizzled versus the Spartans with 27 points, five assists and five rebounds. “Extremely blessed. It’s the right direction where we want to go. We’re trying to be at the top in the state of Alabama, and we took a big step toward there today.”

The Steel City showdown with Mountain Brook (12-2) opened at a furious pace. The lead traded hands 10 times by the early stages of the second quarter before the Spartans used a 12-3 surge to settle into a quasi-comfortable lead. It held until the fourth.

And then started the latest episode of the Schaffer Show.

The senior thrust himself straight into the state’s Mr. Basketball discussion in a mere matter of minutes, sinking one 3-pointer to tie the game at the 3:15 mark and another to put Cullman up 68-65 on the following possession.

Both baskets sent the Bearcat bench and fan base into a bonanza.

“That was God being there for me more than anything, because there’s no way I hit that by myself,” Schaffer said of the sequence. “If I ever try to do that again, it wouldn’t be the same. I’d probably airball that deep one. I thought I airballed it short because this gym’s so hard to shoot in, but I just shot it.

“I don’t know why I did. It was just one of those moments I guess.”

Mountain Brook quickly retook the lead and stretched it to 71-68, but Schaffer wasn’t done yet. He dished a slick dime inside to Nic Handley to close the gap to one and, with ice in his veins out of a Cullman timeout, delivered the game-winner from mid-range.

“It’s surreal. It’s like a dream,” said Bearcat coach Bobby Meyer after celebrating with coaches, administrators and friends. “You have things fall your way with a missed free throw, a turnover. Then you’re able to get that bucket with Lawson, who deserved to get that bucket. The kid works his tail off. Then you get the defensive stop to end it.

“Just a great feeling for the boys. Two fantastic days of beating two state champions from the previous year. To beat them and compete with them is just a great testament to the boys.”

Meyer had the utmost praise for Schaffer and — quite possibly — a new nickname.

For a humble kid wanting to strut his stuff in front of all the additional eyes the Steel City Invitational affords, “handyman” does have a nice ring to it.

“The thing he needs to realize is he’s the point guard. And when this team wins, it’s probably because of the point guard, whether he scored a lot of points or not,” Meyer said. “Lawson’s used to scoring points, assists. He averages basically a triple-double for us.

“He does it all. He’s a handyman.”

While Schaffer did play hero, he was far from the only Cullman player to contribute to the triumph.

Seth Swalve was the Bearcats’ go-to guy in the first half, scoring 13 of his 15 points during the stretch. Brontae Harris followed up his 25-point performance versus Parker with nine on Saturday, and Elijah Price did damage down low with eight points. Handley put up seven points, and Matt Cofer, Chase Slocumb and Gage Goodwin all added two.

Slocumb also had a team-high six rebounds.

As much as Meyer wanted to float on Cloud 9 forever, it wasn’t long before he was reminded of the harsh realities of being a high school basketball coach. Not only was he tasked with preparing for yet another high-stakes matchup, but he also had to worry about finding an in-arena laundry room to wash his players’ jerseys.

The latter wound up coming into play when Cullman had to undergo an impromptu wardrobe change just before its bout with Faith Academy. Back in their home whites, the Bearcats (9-4) stormed out to a 9-2 advantage.

But it didn’t last. The Rams (17-1) ended the quarter on a 15-9 surge, outscored Cullman 22-10 in the second and then pulled away over the final 16 minutes.

“The bottom line is we just flat out ran out of gas,” Meyer said. “We had a little burst there at the beginning, but from that point on, we didn’t have our legs. We wanted to do things like we do them, but we couldn’t muster it up.

“It’s just the way it worked out.”

Jason McAfee and Seth Swalve tried their best to shoot the Bearcats back into the contest. McAfee finished with 18 points from behind the arc, and Swalve bolstered a 14-point performance with a quartet of treys.

Other Black and Gold contributors were Schaffer, nine points, eight assists and six rebounds; Harris, seven points; Goodwin, four; and Price, Cofer and Handley, all two.

Josh Hill led a group of five Faith Academy players in double figures with 19 points. He capped off a double-double with 14 rebounds, a category the Rams owned 37-20.

“It’s been a big, long week, starting way back with Austin,” Meyer said. “That was a very tough game there. Then Thursday night, then Friday night, then two games today. It caught up with us.”

Cullman will have a full day to get the wind back in its sails before a third-place showdown with 7A No. 3 Theodore. Tipoff is slated for Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Pete Hanna Center.