UPDATE: Isidore Philip Tisson, 27, murdered execution-style in his car hours after scoring the game-winning goal to propel St. Lucia to the finals against Jamaica

A St. Lucia soccer star's jubilant victory celebration was cut short by a deadly .45-caliber bullet, fired execution-style into his car Monday on a dark Brooklyn street.

Isidore Phillip Tisson, 27, scored the goal that sent his country to the finals in a big tournament, then hit a Crown Heights club where he had the deejay give him shoutouts all night.

Headed home after 4 a.m., he had just stopped to buy some bananas when a gunman crept up and fired a single shot that crashed through his skull and hit the woman next to him.

"I heard the noise and then I felt the pain," the wounded woman, Shawnette Justin, 24, told the Daily News in a bedside interview at Brookdale University Hospital. "When I turned to see what was wrong, I saw the blood coming from his head."

Three other women in the car were unhurt. The driver stepped on the gas, but by the time they got to the hospital, the athlete was dead. "He didn't say anything on the way. His eyes were moving a little, but then nothing," Justin said. "I was holding his head, but then I couldn't any longer."

The motive for the murder of the team's top striker was unclear.

Police were investigating whether Tisson got into a fight at Tropiks, the Utica Ave. nightspot where he and teammates went to party.

They were also looking into whether the violence was sparked by something that happened during the Digicel Caribbean Cup, which is being held in Brooklyn.

Tisson led St. Lucia to an improbable 1-0 victory Sunday over St. Kitts-Nevis, sending his team to the finals of the tournament, where it will play Jamaica.

While celebrating at Tropiks, Tisson did not drink but was the toast of the party.

"He went back and forth to the deejay getting shoutouts to himself," Justin said. "How he scored the winning goal, how Jamaica best beware. Things like that. Maybe somebody was angry about that."

Teammate Simon Polius, 32, said Tisson had been threatened about his relationship with Justin.

"One day somebody told him, 'If you don't leave her alone' he would kill him," Polius said. "She had a boyfriend back home."

Justin, a schoolteacher in St. Lucia, insisted she and Tisson were just childhood friends and there was no former boyfriend in the wings.

Relatives said Tisson was a dedicated soccer player well-known in his country. He was unmarried with a 3-year-old daughter and had been in New York since May for the tournament.

"I feel that my whole world is falling apart," his mother, Rosleyn Tisson, said by phone. "He was very serious about what he was doing."

"It's a day of mourning in St. Lucia," said Tisson's cousin Dani Hippolyte. "Everybody was rooting for him."

A center-forward and substitute on St. Lucia's national team in its 2010 World Cup qualifying attempt, Tisson was the team's top scoring threat, said coach Martin Daniel.

"It was only the second time in 16 years that St. Lucia has made it to the finals [of the Digicel tournament]," Daniel said.

The match at Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York ended about 5:15 p.m. Sunday, and the team stayed around to watch Jamaica beat Barbados.

The players celebrated at the team clubhouse on Ralph Ave. before heading to the club.

Daniel said he could not imagine Tisson getting into a fight.

"He is very tall and big and gentle as a teddy bear," he said. "Everyone is surprised."

He said the team planned to compete in the final in honor of their fallen teammate.

"He loved soccer. By playing we would be doing what we could do best to honor him," Daniel said.

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The heartbroken St. Lucia soccer team will play the Caribbean Cup championship game in honor of their star player slain on a Brooklyn street, the team announced Tuesday.

Isidore Philip Tisson, 27, scored the game-winning goal to propel St. Lucia to the finals Sunday, only to be murdered execution-style in his car hours later.

His team, though wracked with grief, vowed to compete in his memory.

"We have decided to play this final game as a tribute to Philip, who scored the single goal that propelled us to be in the finals," said coach Daniel Martin, whose squad will square off with Jamaica Sunday.

Officials at the Digicel Caribbean Cup, which is being held in Brooklyn, also unveiled a fund to help pay for the beloved Tisson's burial.

"This is a major loss to the team and to the league," says Fred Ballantyne, President of the Caribbean Cup. "Nevertheless, we ask the community to come out and support the teams for the final championship game."

Hailed as a hero for scoring the goal that defeated St. Kitts-Nevis, Tisson celebrated at Tropiks, the Crown Heights club where he spent his final hours.

After leaving the club, where he did not drink but was frequently saluted by the club's deejay, Tisson and friend Shawnette Justin, 24, went to buy bananas and were sitting in the soccer star's car when a gunman stealthily approached.

A single shot pierced Tisson's skull and wounded Justin, sitting next to him. The three other women in the car were unhurt.

Investigators were looking for surveillance video taken from the area around the Utica Ave. club and interviewed other revelers to see if Tisson fought with anyone inside Tropiks.

Tisson, the father of a 3-year-old girl, was a center-forward and substitute on St. Lucia's national team when it attempted to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

He had lived in New York since May, while preparing for the tournament, teammates said.