TULSA – Putnam City junior Kayla Hill hit a layup with 17 seconds left to lift the Lady Pirates to a 54-53 win over Union Tuesday night (Jan. 9). The win snapped a six-game losing streak for Putnam City.

The Lady Pirates (5-8) trailed 53-52, after a put-back from Union senior Aaliyah Smith with 26 seconds left.

Putnam City Porsche’ Young called her final timeout and there was only one player she had in mind for a game-winning shot.

“We knew that Kayla had the hot hand,” Young said. “So, of course, I had to draw something up for her. Kayla will go to the bucket at any time of the game.”

“So, I trusted to put it in her hands, and I told her, ‘Hey, put your team on the back, today and go get it.’”

Hill responded after the timeout by driving to the right block and scoring to give the PC the 54-53 advantage. Union called its final timeout with 15 seconds.

The Redhawks (6-4) turned the ball over on the ensuing possession. Junior Destinee Hunt caught the long inbounds pass near midcourt and was fouled by immediately.

Hunt missed two free throws and Union, without any timeouts left, scrambled up the floor for a final shot.

With one second remaining, Redhawk junior Brooke Bettis’ long trey from the top of the key hit the front of the rim and the Lady Pirates had the win.

Hill finished with 20 points, freshman Alecianne “Ace” Engmann scored 11 and junior Paishintz Booker added 10 in the win.

Union junior Esme Smith scored 19 for the Redhawks followed by Aaliyah Smith’s 13 points in the loss.

Putnam City had a 30-20 lead at halftime, but the lead shrank to 35-33 going into a back-and-forth fourth quarter.

“Post defense was what we were focusing on to shut down the middle and make the guards have to do the work. That’s kind of what we did in the first half,” Young said. “We lost a little bit of momentum going into the second half. So, we had to rally together to finish the game off strong.”

Young hopes this is the beginning of a turnaround for her team, which had a promising 4-2 start.

“I told (the team) tonight, we get this win. It’s the start of us, getting our morale back and just getting our confidence back,” Young said. “They knew that this was going to be the momentum changer for us going into the second half of our season.”