:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/6SSY3W54QREAFOUT64XSCADXUY.jpg)
HINCKLEY — Hinckley-Big Rock senior Devin Werner picked the perfect time to hit her first 3-pointer of the season as the Royals topped the Harvest Christian Academy Lions 33-30 in the Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Regional championship.
“Sometimes I have fun in practice and shoot them, but never really that serious in a game,” Werner said. “Coach (Doug) Brewington gave me the confidence to get it and shoot it.”
With the regional title on the line in the fourth quarter, Werner took an inbounds pass, turned and fired from behind the arc to put the Royals ahead 28-25. The shot brought the crowd to their feet and the Royals never trailed again.
“I know they were sagging in the paint on her a little bit, so we drew that up in the timeout,” Brewington said. “She looked at me like ‘What?’, but sure enough she swished it and hit two key free throws for us late. She’s been our rock all year.”
Werner finished with a game-high 15 points.
In the final seconds, Werner came up clutch again. She nailed two free throws with 16 seconds left to give the Royals a 33-29 lead.
“I was shaking the whole time,” Werner said. “I knew they were big free throws and I needed to make them to give us that extra push.”
The Lions came back with Daphne Brown hitting a free throw to make it a one-possession game with 10 seconds left. The Lions grabbed the rebound off the second free throw and senior Kate Dickman got off two quick 3-point attempts, but both shots rimmed out.
“(When the shots aren’t going in), It just makes us lose confidence,” Dickman said. “We shoot hoping that it will go in, instead of knowing that it is going to go in. You just give it your all.”
Dickman had hit a 3-pointer earlier at the end of the third quarter to tie the game at 23. She finished with six points in the game.
Neither offense could get going in the game as shots bounced around the rim for both teams, and neither team led by more than six points all game.
“It was tied for a lot of the game, so it was a 0-0 mentality,” Dickman said. “We could go out and play like it was the beginning of the game.”
The lead changed hands three times in the second half as both teams battled in the paint.
“They just kept battling defensively,” Lions coach Jeremy Burke said. “The shots weren’t falling, but they didn’t let it affect their defense and that was huge.”
Brown opened the fourth quarter with a lay-in that put the Lions ahead, but a quick layup by Werner tied the game before her big 3-pointer.
The Lions opened the second half with five straight points to take a four-point lead.
Royals’ sophomore Sami Carlino, who sprained her ankle in the first half and was on the bench icing it down, came back in and provided a spark off the bench in the third quarter. She knocked in two quick baskets within a minute to put the Royals back on top.
“She’s our Patrick Mahomes,” Brewington said. “Ankle sprain right before the half and comes back. For her to come in as a sophomore in that clutch moment and deliver is an incredible thing.”
For the Royals, it is their second straight regional championship. For the Lions, it was their second straight heartbreak loss in the regional. Last season they lost on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.