The Lee-Davis girls’ basketball team finally appeared to be over the hump. After only picking up two wins all of last season, the C-feds were on the verge of matching that number in this year’s fourth game.

  Battling their way back from a 20-12 halftime deficit to host Hanover, Lee-Davis led 35-30 with less than 32 seconds to play. But outstanding work by Hanover Coach Kevin Brooks and well-executed timeouts allowed the young Hawks (1-1 Capital, 1-2) team to hand Lee-Davis (0-1, 1-3) a heartbreaking 36-35 loss. At the same time Hanover picked up their first win of the season.

  For Brooks it was a matter of his young players trusting his instructions down the stretch. “I’m excited that they took pride and believed in us in the last 40 seconds when we called time out and said we got them right where we want them. We are going to win this game,” he said. “If you believe us we are going to win this game and they believed in us and executed the last 40 seconds.”

  With :31.6 to play, Hanover sophomore Brooke Throckmorton connected on a pair of free throws to pull the Hawks within three, 35-32. A quick timeout from Brooks allowed his Hawks to set up and force a Lee-Davis turnover on the inbounds. Another timeout set the offense and with :20.3 to play Throckmorton drilled a three from the right baseline to knot the game at 35.

  What made Throckmorton’s shot huge was until that point Hanover had only connected on a single field goal in the second half.

  “I was just praying for that one shot to go in,” Throckmorton said. “If none of the other ones, that one.”

  With :18.4 to play, Lee-Davis head coach Alvin Puller called time to set his offense after the C-feds got the ball to mid court. But when guard Logan Bryan drove into a crowd in the post, Hanover’s Lynnse Caler came away with the ball for an open fast break and the C-feds’ Tina Gardner was forced to foul, sending Caler to the line with 3.6 seconds left in the game. 

  Caler missed the first free throw but manage to regroup and hit the second and give her team the win. “I been working on my free throws in practice and I had to get elevation in it,” she said. “The first one was flat so I had to take my time and get set to make the next one.”

  “Taking the ball strong to the basket and drawing the foul was the biggest part of the play,” Brooks said. “Stepping up to the line was the easy part.”

  The free throw line was what made the difference in the highly contested contest that seemed as if it involved more tie-ups than points scored. For the game Hanover shot 14-of-20 from the charity stripe but they were rock-solid down the stretch going 11-of-13 in the second half.

  “Our young players really stepped up,” Brooks said. “We have a very, very young team and I’m excited for them to be able to get their first win.”

  On the other hand, Lee-Davis needs to look no further than the foul line as blame for the loss. The C-feds were 11-of-22 in the game, 9-of-18 in the second half and missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-ones to open the fourth quarter.

  Lee-Davis took an early 5-2 lead three minutes into the game on a drive inside by senior Raven Sims and a three from the left wing by Gardner. But then as in previous games, the C-feds went through an eight-minute scoring draught as Hanover pulled out to a 13-5 lead.

  Hanover took a 20-12 lead into the locker room thanks to a dominating performance by sophomore Mariah Douglas who scored six of her game high 21 points to open the game.

  “I was just working hard, I was excited for the game,” Douglas said. “I was just doing what I had to do for the team for us to get the win. I had a lot of other help though.”

  But Lee-Davis came storming out of the locker room in the second half going on a 6-0 run before Douglas connected on a free throw and inside shot for a 23-18 Hanover lead.

  But the goal by Douglas with 2:21 left in the third was the Hawks only second half field basket until the closing seconds of the game.

  “We got shots that we wanted, we just didn’t knock them down,” Brooks said. “That’s part of the sign of a young team. Battling through that adversity and being able to step up and lock down defensively is what we’ve got to be able to do.”

  In the third quarter it was the strong inside play of Lee-Davis junior Meredith Holmes that put the C-feds back in the game. Holmes scored off an inbounds play then on a put back to pull her team within one, 23-22.

  But Lee-Davis sophomore guard Logan Bryan (15 points) took over in the fourth, scoring on a pair of free throws, a banker and a plus-one goal off an inbounds to put the C-feds on top 31-28 with under two minutes to play.

  Douglas, who scored every Hawk second half point until the closing seconds and went 11-of-13 from the line in the second half, momentarily stopped the run with a pair of free throws.

  “I wanted to win and I just had that mentality that if I was going to win I was going to have to step up and have some energy and do what I had to do,” Douglas said.

  Lee-Davis answered with an inside shot from senior Samantha Puller and two free throws from Bryan for a 35-30 lead that set up the dramatic Hanover comeback.
 
LEE-DAVIS (0-1 Capital, 1-3) Holmes 6, Thomas 3, Bryan 15, Puller 3, Sims 5, Gardner 3, Hugs 0, Parramore 0. Totals 11 11-23 35.
HANOVER (1-1, 1-2) Woolard 5, Barrett 0, Throckmorton 5, Caler 5, Deadmon 0, Webb 0, Douglas 21, Jordan 0, Hess 0, Pachner 0, Fehl 0. Totals 10 14-22 36.
Lee-Davis….............5 7 10 13 — 35
Hanover…................8 12 5 11 — 36
3-point goals: LD — Thomas, Gardner. H—Woolard, Throckmorton.