By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SAVANNAH – South Effingham’s girls needed someone to step up Tuesday afternoon at the Joe Greene tournament at Beach High School.
Junior guard/forward Hayden Johanson wasn’t bashful.
Johanson scored 10 of her game-high 20 points in the final 2:29 to lead the Mustangs to a 49-40 victory over Johnson.
“Hayden prepares for moments like these,” SEHS coach Alexus Parker said. “Being one of the two starters who returned, she knows she has to carry the offensive load and she embraces it.”
It’s a heavy load. The Mustangs averaged just 27 points a game in three previous outings. They were overmatched in a 61-25 loss to Monroe during the first day of the two-day Joe Greene tournament.
Late in the third quarter against Johnson, South had a six-point lead, 26-20, before hitting an offensive slowdown. The Mustangs made just one field goal in a six-minute span and Johnson suddenly had a five-point lead, 37-32, with 5:25 to play.
The Atomsmashers maintained a 40-37 advantage after Zacaria Grady’s 3-point play.
But with 2:29 left, Johanson sank a corner 3-pointer – SEHS’ first three of the game – to tie the game at 40.
She added a layup with 1:48 left to put the Mustangs ahead 42-40 and then drained another 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining to provide some breathing room and had another layup in the final seconds.
“We expect her to hit big shots like that,” Parker said. “She stays in the gym all the time. She hit the big three and took it with confidence. The preparation showed.”
South (2-4) lost to Calvary 36-29 on Saturday in the Savannah Hoops Shootout at EnMarket Arena.
But the ending against Johnson showed the Mustangs’ capabilities.
“We had to capitalize on the small things and stay within what we talked about,” said Parker, who saw the Johnson game slipping away and called a strategic timeout with about six minutes to go.
The girls responded with the game-ending 17-3 run. Five different Mustangs scored in the fourth quarter.
Before the spurt neither team had a lead bigger than five points in the game.
Sophomore guard Kailyn Chapman helped keep South within striking distance with 12 of her 15 points during the first three quarters.
“This is the part of the season when you load your schedule with competitive games, games that are challenges,” Parker said. “This is a young team. We teach our kids to compete, to get better at the small things so for them to excel at some of those small things, that was amazing to see.”
South was back in action on Dec. 3 against Jenkins before traveling to Springfield to play rival Effingham County on Saturday (Dec. 7) at 5 p.m.
