The Lexington girls basketball team played host to Rock Hill in a second round Class 5A Upper State playoff matchup.

The Lady Wildcats were coming off a 30 point win in the first round, but were facing the preseason No. 1 Lady Bearcats for the second time this season. 

Rock Hill won the first meeting 44-42. This time around, Lexington advanced to the third round with a 42-39 win.

“We take a lot of pride in not getting beat by the same team twice,” said head coach Molly Goodrich, who picked up her 136th win with the Lady Wildcats. “We call them revenge games.”

Since 2019, Lexington under Goodrich is 5-0 in "revenge games." This was the second such game this season. 

The story of the first half was missed shots and missed opportunities for Lexington. Rock Hill scored first on a 3-pointer, but it took Lexington over two minutes to respond with their own from 3-point range.

They didn’t hit another shot until a three-pointer from senior Jenna Yanity at the 3:49 mark. 

The Lady Wildcats trailed for much of the first period, but they took advantage of a play out of a timeout where sophomore Izzy Saville hit an easy layup, and then Yanity scored another easy inside basket off of an inbound pass. 

With one minute remaining in the first period, Saville hit a three-pointer to put the Lady Wildcats in the lead for the first time in the game. They led 17-16 at the end of the first period.

Lexington got their shooting touch back during the second period, running the court and capitalizing on some long passing by Yanityto open up a small lead, with senior Maggie Green’s jumper at 4:34 giving the Wildcats a 24-18 lead. 

Rock Hill fought their way back before the end of the first half with physical play and some key 3-point shots. The overall pace of the game picked up as both teams pushed the ball hard up the court on offense as Lexington took a 24-23 lead into halftime.

In the second half, The Lady Wildcats picked up where they left off, pushing the ball forward to get those inside shot opportunities. However, their shooting difficulties also continued before Green hit the first Lexington basket two minutes into the half to make it 26-23.

The Bearcats regained the lead with offensive rebounds and second chance baskets. With just over two minutes left in the third, Rock Hill led 35-29. 

In the fourth quarter, multiple players from the Wildcats contributed to swing the lead back their way. Green opened the fourth on a score off an offensive rebound, then hit a three-pointer at the 4:35 mark to put her team in the lead 38-37. 

After more back and forth possessions with little scoring to show for it, Lexington found themselves up 40-39 with only 44 seconds remaining. After being fouled, Saville missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, but Rock Hill failed to capitalize, missing their shot at the other end of the court. 

With three seconds remaining, Yanity was fouled and went to the line, making both shots of her one-and-one. The final score stood as the Lady Bearcats’ last second shot failed to go in. 

Green finished with 11 points to lead the Lady Wildcats scoring, with Saville contributing 10 points and Yanity 9. This was Lexington’s sixth straight win, during which it has held its opponents to an average of 32.2 points per game.

“That loss to Dutch Fork lit a fire in our program,” he said. “We decided as a program that we were going to make a positive out of  that loss and learn and get better from it. We knew we had to improve on our defense and our rebounding and have really bought into getting better every day.”

Lexington will travel to Mauldin for the third round on Feb. 22. 

“The five days to prepare will be great for us,” Goodrich said. “These girls need a day off and we'll hit it hard Sunday!” 

Gray Collegiate 88, Mid-Carolina 26

Maliyiah Mason scored 26 points, Kadence Walker-Lee had 16 and Jordan Mintz added 14 as the Lady War Eagles won their second-round game on the road.

They will play host to Region 4-2A rival Fairfield Central in the third round on Feb. 21.

Stratford 49, River Bluff 14

Stall 69, Dutch Fork 63

Hillary Offing scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Antoinett Cheesboro had 15 points and Aaliyah Lee finished with 14 in the loss.

SCISA playoffs

Oakbrook Prep 43, Northside Christian 37

Feb. 18 Games 

Boys 

Rock Hill at Lexington, 6:30 p.m. 

St. James at River Bluff 

Abbeville at Gray Collegiate 

SCISA 

Oakbrook Prep at Northside Christian Academy, 12:30 p.m.