Top-ranked Century hadn’t been tested in six weeks. But whenthe chips were down, the Diamondbacks rose up with a rally for the ages andwrested the 4A girls basketball title away from Skyview.

Down nine with 2 minutes left in regulation, Century pulledoff the impossible, rallying to force overtime and then pulling away fromSkyview to win 70-63 and claim the program’s first state championship.

Sarah Holt hit a 3-pointer, Kylee Casper hit a layup,Lindsey Smoot stole an inbound pass and laid it in, and then Holt hit two freethrows to tie the game in the space of 60 seconds.

“I was not about to let that happen to us. We’ve worked waytoo hard to fall short, and in those last two minutes we just knew it was nowor never,” said Holt. “I think we decided we just wanted it a little bit more.”

Henny Hearn scored 24 points and pulled down six rebounds,and Holt had 15 points.

The last time Century lost was Jan. 6 – the Diamondbacks hadwon every game since by double figures until Saturday night.

It was a fairly back-and-forth game until the fourthquarter, when Skyview began to pull away. The Hawks had a nine-point lead withless than two minutes to go and didn’t score again.

Century took advantage and hit both floor shots and freethrows in the overtime period to salt the game away.

“It’s unbelievable. We just kept fighting and we did it,”said Hearn. “This has been our goal since our freshman year, and a lot of ushave been playing together for a long time.”

For Skyview, Kayla Turcado scored 21 points and pulled down11 rebounds.

Box score: www.idhsaa.org/sports/stats/1415/gbb/4A/4Agirlsgame15.html

Idaho Sports Player of the Game: Henny Hearn, Century.