Fourth Quarter Rally: Quick fourth quarter start gives Jefferson County a 46-42 victory

However, Cayla Smith hit the first of two huge 3-pointers from the left corner to put last year’s tournament runner-ups back in front. Hayes cashed in two more charity tosses to chop the margin back to one, but Smith drained another triple after the Lady Patriots broke the press, and it was 42-38 with 4:55 to play. The Lady Hurricanes never got closer than two.

Smith popped through 15 points to lead Jefferson County, now 9-3 for the season. Makayla Alvey registered a double-double as she added 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Hayes put on quite a show for East Hamilton but didn’t get any help offensively. She scored 27 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and had five steals and three assists. She was a perfect 11-11 at the free throw line.

Jefferson County will be back in action on Saturday when it faces Lanier (Ga.) at 4 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

Lady Patriots’ coach Rick Sinard said, “We made plays when we needed to make them, and we hit foul shots today. If we could get away from some of the mistakes we’re making, we might get better.”

Jefferson County wound up with 18 turnovers, but they didn’t have a lot at key times. “I thought Cayla hit two huge three’s for us and Madee (Denton) had a big basket when we posted her up at the end. And Makayla had a great night. She’s been our leading rebounder and did it again.

“Hayes is a really good player,” he added. “We played zone most of the time at the end because I thought we could have five people guard her in the zone and also maybe get someone else to shoot for them. But we kept the ball out of her hands at the end.”

Sinard said he had been on Smith about passing up her shot at times. “She wasn’t quite ready to shoot at times and wound up not shooting. But she’s been taking that shot more consistently the last couple of games and, if she has a little space there, she can get it off pretty good.”

The Lady Patriots were 12-of-34 from the floor for 35.3 percent including 7-of-20 behind the arc. East Hamilton, which fell to 6-9, finished 14-of-47 for 29.8 percent and missed all 12 of their attempts from long range.

With Hayes leading the way, the Lady Hurricanes had a 30-28 rebounding edge. Kali McMahan added six for Jefferson County.

McMahan hit four straight free throws as the Lady Patriots grabbed a 9-4 lead in the first quarter. But Hayes scored five straight as the losers finished the quarter on a 9-0 run,

Hayes scored again to open the second quarter and gave her team a 15-9 lead. But the Lady Patriots had a run of their own, reeling off 12 straight as Smith, Denton and Alvey all knocked down three’s.

But Jefferson didn’t score a basket in the final 3:50 of the half, and the Lady Hurricanes cut the difference to 23-20 at intermission.

Smith made another three to give the winners a 28-24 lead two minutes into the third frame, but Hayes scored six and Dezah Lacey hit a layup as East Hamilton went back in front 32-30 at the final rest stop.

Tara Scales tied it with two free throws, and McMahan and Scales hit fast break layups for the 36-30 lead.

After Smith’s big triples made it 42-38, Denton took a pass in the post, pivoted around her defender and hit a layup to stretch the lead to six. But Hayes hit two charity tosses with 3:56 left and added two more at the 2:40 mark to pull the losers within two.

But they didn’t score again while the Lady Patriots got a free throw each from Scales and Alvey to put it away.