COVINGTON — Pine and Archbishop Hannan played a pair of close games that the Lady Raiders won in the regular season, so it was no surprise that the evenly matched teams had another close one in Wednesday’s District 10-2A contest at Northlake Christian School.
Pine won the previous matchups, 46-43 in overtime, and 30-26.
Wednesday’s game went into overtime and came down to the wire before the Lady Raiders pulled off a 44-41 victory.
“After you play somebody twice in a row, it’s hard to beat them a third time, so we’re just fortunate to come out with a win,” Pine coach Mary McGinnis said. “We played good enough defense down the stretch, gave her a little bit of a too open look for my taste, but we did enough. We need to do a better job on the offensive end of executing.”
Neither team led by more than five points, which was Hannan at 23-18 about halfway through the third quarter. Pine’s biggest advantage was four at 10-6 late in the first period.
The game went to the 4-minute overtime period tied, 35-35.
Hannan took a 41-40 lead on a jumper by Kennedy Martin with 1:18 remaining.
But Pine’s Breyanna Brown grabbed an offensive board and hit the putback with a minute on the clock to give the Lady Raiders a 42-41 lead.
Brown then hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 17.5 seconds left. The Lady Hawks missed a 3-pointer on their next possession. Brown got the rebound and was immediately fouled with 9.5 seconds left, but missed a free throw to keep the game 44-41. Hannan had one last chance. The Lady Hawks got a good look for a potential game-tying 3-pointer, but were unable hit the shot, as Pine won, 44-41.
Brown led all scorers with a game-high 22 points. Brown knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, including banking one in from about three-quarters court at the first-quarter buzzer that gave Pine a 13-10 lead through one quarter.
Savannah Kennedy scored 12 points.
Bethany McGinnis put up eight points, which included a 3-pointer, and Hannah Ard added two for the Lady Raiders.
Hannan’s Martin led the Lady Hawks with 14 points.
Mallory Kramer posted 11.
Miranda Kramer finished with six while Julia Fecke recorded five and Sydney Bagby added four. Fecke hit a 3-pointer.
Pine plays Northlake Christian in the tournament title game tonight with tip off set scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Northlake Christian won the two regular season matchups, 50-34 and 40-33.