South Effingham’s half-court defense, however, proved to be more than effective Friday night.

The Lady Mustangs went on a key second-quarter run and held off the visiting Lady Rebels 54-44, going to 12-9 on the year and 4-3 in Region 2-AAAA (B). Effingham County fell to 10-8 on the season and 3-3 in the subregion.

"I couldn’t be more proud of them," Lady Mustangs coach Stacey Womack said of her team. The rival games are always an emotional game. You never know going into it how they are going to show up, is it going to be negative emotion or positive emotion. They played with so much heart and so much determination."

Makayla Brooks’ baseline shot put the Lady Rebels ahead 13-9, but South Effingham scored the first seven points of the second quarter to take a 16-13. Dionna Hartfield’s steal and layup capped the outburst.

Machala Raymonville drained a game-tying 3-pointer, but back-to-back baskets — first from Hannah Anderson and then from Tianna Germain — put the Lady Mustangs in front 24-16.

Anderson and Germain combined for 16 points as the Lady Mustangs outscored the Lady Rebels 19-5 in the second quarter and never relinquished the lead.

"That may have been the worst game we’ve played all year," said Lady Rebels coach Curtis Stevens. "I thought we handled their press with success. But we didn’t finish well. We allowed their half-court defense to take us out of what we were trying to run. That 19-5 run was the difference in the game."

Germain’s basket with 3:40 to go in the third quarter, as she slammed on the brakes and let two Lady Rebels sail past her on the baseline, gave South Effingham its largest lead at 35-21. Effingham trimmed the lead to 37-30 on two Raymonville free throws with 2.2 seconds to play.

But Germain got the inbounds pass and from just beyond half-court, literally threw in a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Effingham, though, shook off that shot and scored the first six points of the fourth quarter.

"As bad as we played in the second quarter, I thought we played a really good third quarter," Stevens said. "We gained ground. Now we’re right back to 10 (points down), and some of our momentum is taken away. But they responded great."

Alexis Williams’ 3 ended a 9-1 run that stretched the lead back out to 49-37 with 2:41 to go. During that stretch, the Lady Mustangs held the Lady Rebels without a field goal for four minutes.

"They started making a run. Give them credit for keeping their composure," Womack said of the Lady Rebels. "But tonight, our girls weren’t going to take no for an answer. They played a heckuva game defensively.

"I’ve been telling the girls for the last two weeks, the wins we’ve had, our defensive intensity has been the big factor," Womack continued. "We’ve been playing great defense. We are definitely a better team when it is an uptempo game, and to keep it an uptempo game, we have to play uptempo defense."

Raymonville topped the Lady Rebels with 14 points. Suzy Stone had seven points, Jakayvea Akins scored six, Kyesha Lewis and Aliyah Williams had five points each and Brooks finished with four points.

Germain was 10-of-12 from the free throw line, including 5-of-6 in the final two minutes, leading to a 23-point night. Anderson scored 12 points, Williams had six, Hartfield added five and Amy Jameson and Ta’Keia Marshall each had two points.

The win also gave the Lady Mustangs a leg up on the Lady Rebels in the race for the No. 2 spot in the subregion and a first-round bye in the region tournament.

"I give Stacey a lot of credit," Stevens said. "She’s a great coach and does a really good job with that group of girls."