RICHMOND HILL — The Effingham County girls had every reason to flinch Friday night in the Region 3-AAAAA title game, but they didn’t budge.
Ware County wasn’t backing down, either.
It made for a thrilling championship game in front of an energized crowd at Richmond Hill High School.
“We just thought, man, we have to have it,” said sophomore MaKayla Jackson, who scored seven points in the fourth quarter as top-seeded Effingham held on for a 43-41 win and its second straight region title.
The Rebels (26-2) had beaten Ware 52-32 on Jan. 3 and 63-50 on Jan. 31 earlier this season, but this night was different.
The Gators (21-7) led 39-38 with just 1:23 left, but Kyesha Lewis sank a free throw to tie the game and Robinson put Effingham ahead for good with a short jumper in the lane.
Rebels point guard Jakayvea Akins, a Georgia Southern signee, added a layup to make it 43-39 with 45 seconds left, but hard-to-discourage NeNe Howard, who finished with 26 points, made two free throws in the final seconds.
Howard then stole the inbound pass at midcourt and heaved a shot in desperation that glanced off the rim at the buzzer.
“We have a veteran team that’s been there before,” Effingham County coach Curtis Stevens said. “We just believed this team was going to make plays together.”
Robinson finished with 13 points. Akins had 12 and Ebony Hicklen 10.
Ware girls seemingly had Effingham right where they wanted them after rebounding from a eight-point first-quarter deficit.
The Gators beat Bradwell Institute by a point and Glynn Academy by two points to advance to the finals.
But the semifinal win was costly because Daejha White, who had 19 points against the Red Terrors, also suffered an injury and missed the title game.
Howard adequately filled the scoring void. She had five in the Gators’ 7-0 run in the second quarter, trimming Effingham’s 17-9 lead to one.
Neither team had more than a five-point advantage the rest of the way.
Ware took its first lead of the game, 25-24, on Howard’s layup with 1:48 to go in the third quarter.
A Howard layup tied the game at 29-29 with 11 seconds left in the third quarter and the teams entered the final eight minutes deadlocked.
Robinson had a layup and a free throw during a mini 5-0 spurt at the start of the fourth quarter, but Ware regained the lead with a 10-4 run during the next 3½ minutes.
“We knew we just had to keep working hard,” Robinson said.
WARE COUNTY (41)
NeNe Howard 26, Crews 4, Wilson 2, Mackey 9.
EFFINGHAM COUNTY (43)
MaKayla Robinson 13, Ebony Hicklen 10, Jakayvea Akins 12, Fowler 4, Lewis 4.
Halftime—ECHS 20-16. Records—ECHS 26-2, WC 21-7.
Consolation game
RICHMOND HILL 34,
GLYNN ACADEMY 22
RICHMOND HILL — Kristen McCauley scored 11 points, and Richmond Hill’s girls held Glynn Academy scoreless in the third quarter to beat the Red Terror in the Region 3-AAAAA consolation game.
The Wildcats will be the third seed from the region in the upcoming Class AAAAA state tournament. Glynn is the fourth seed.
Richmond Hill led 19-15 at halftime, but held the Terrors to just three field goals in the final 16 minutes.
RICHMOND HILL (34)
Patrick 8, Scriven 2, Franklin 2, Riley 4, Kristen McCauley 11, Jackson 7.
GLYNN ACADEMY (22)
V. Murray 6, N. Murray 3, Derrick 6, Singleton 2, Campbell 1, Hall 4.
Halftime—Richmond Hill 19-15.