Photo by Careese Robinson Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time. For Shawnique Hawkins being under the basket during the last play of regulation helped her score the winning basket as the Dreher Lady Blue Devils beat the Lower Richland Lady Diamond Hornets 38-36 Friday, January 27.

“It was a good win for us. We’ve never had to play with our backs against the wall. We had a lead and let them work their way back into the game, but that is to be expected since they are a good team. We were able to fight back, turn up our defense, and start making a few shots,” Dreher head coach Teresa Jones said.

It was far from a perfect game played by Dreher, which included a nearly six minute scoring drought between the third and fourth quarters. However, Lower Richland’s lack of execution on free throws helped the Lady Blue Devils stay in the game and allowed for an opportunity that presented itself late in the final quarter.

With the final bucket, Hawkins finished the game as the leading scorer for Dreher with 11 points, while Lower Richland was led in scoring by Breshay Johnson, who finished with 10.

The Lady Blue Devil offense started the game off with the first five points but had a hard time finding a consistent rhythm, partly due to the constant doubleteaming of Kaydra Duckett. When Dreher did find the basket, other players like Hawkins and Racquel Brown stepped up allowing the Lady Blue Devils to hold a fourpoint lead at the end of the first quarter.

Duckett found some offense in the second quarter. After Dayshonshe Mitchell’s free throw cut the Dreher lead to three points, Duckett scored three of the next five points for the Lady Blue Devils, pushing the lead up to eight points.

The lead was seven heading into the third quarter when buckets from Makayla Johnson and Jazmine Robinson stretched Dreher’s lead to 27-17.

Then the drought began.

For the rest of the quarter and the beginning of the next, the Lady Blue Devils would not score a point. The Lady Diamond Hornets took advantage. Justice Nathan, Breshay Johnson, and Desirea Davis highlighted a 13-0 run that gave Lower Richland a 30-27 lead.

Duckett helped Dreher get back in the scoring column with two free throws closing the gap to one. The score remained tight as the game wound down to the final seconds. Duckett tried to clinch the game winning shot, but it missed and the ball fell into Hawkins’ hands for the winning basket.

“That was awesome. I had stated that we were going to take a layup, but a layup means a jump shot to them. She took the jump shot, and Shawnique was down there for the backside rebound and was able to lay it up. One of the smallest people on the court got the offensive rebound,” Jones said.