With the score tied and 1.1 seconds left in what had been a defensive struggle, No. 8 Clarendon and No. 11 Wellington looked destined for overtime to decide the district lead.
However, Hayes took care of all that, shocking half the gym and delighting the other half when the Lady Broncos inbounded the ball from underneath their own basket, and Hayes dribbled and launched a shot from midcourt as the regulation horn sounded which found nothing but net to give Clarendon an improbable 32-29 victory.
In terms of sheer competitiveness, the game more than lived up to the hype, even if it wasn’t an artistic success. But the final 1.1 seconds are something everyone, especially Clarendon fans, will want to hang on the wall the rest of the season.
It was literally a long shot that Hayes would hit a shot from midcourt to win the game as the night progressed, but it nonetheless came true.
“We needed that last-second shot, and my coach trusted me to shoot it, so I knew that I had to get the job done,” said Hayes, who was a logical choice to heave the desperation shot, as she led the Lady Broncos (26-1, 5-0 in district) with 11 points. “After it left my fingers, I looked at it and thought it was going in. It was crazy. I felt like I blacked out for a second.”
Every pass and shot seemed contested from the start, as neither team held a lead bigger than five points the entire way. Clarendon seemed to be the team clinging to a tiny margin all night, leading 18-15 at halftime and 21-19 in the third quarter despite not making a field goal that period.
The Lady Skyrockets looked they might take the game over when Briley Waters scored six points in the quarter, including a 3-pointer to give Wellington a 25-23 lead.
Clarendon finally broke the second-half spell without a field goal as Kate Shaw scored on a pair of shots inside which gave the Lady Broncos a 27-25 lead. With the final seconds running out, Wellington’s Brynlee Profitt scored on a layup to tie it at 29-29, overtime seemed inevitable. Hayes, though, had other plans.
“It is hard to win over here,” Clarendon coach Korey Conkin said. “I came back to Clarendon eight years ago and the first time I came back, we won over here and we have not won since. I had a weird feeling watching film earlier today. I said ‘We need a last-second shot’ and yesterday in practice our guards practiced the halfcourt shot and today we put in that play. It was something that we needed to practice.”
Waters was the only other player in the game in double digits with 14 points.
Clarendon 8 18 21 32
Wellington 7 15 19 29
C- Kenidee Hayes 11, Kate Shaw 6. W- Briley Waters 14, Charley Wilbur 4. Records: Clarendon 26-1, 5-0; Wellington 19-6, 4-1.