The Lady Rams of Newton have been in a bunch of close games all year. They beat Tucker by two in their first game of the season, they beat Alcovy on a putback buzzer beater, they survived to beat Eastside and Rockdale by one and they beat Heritage by three. This would leave you to believe that when Newton had the ball down one, with a little less than 30 seconds left that they’d pull out a victory and win the region championship.

This time the ball just didn’t roll Newton’s way.

With the score at 42-41, Lady Rams’ head coach Tiffani Johnson called a timeout to run a play with 29 seconds left. Imani Broadnax got the ball, dribbled right off of a pick and went up for the floating layup, which bounced off the back of the rim seemingly into the hip, but rolled out. Kayla Smith got the rebound in traffic and threw up a prayer, but it was too hard off the glass and Tucker got the ball back.

Newton fouled Tucker, the Lady Tigers hit free throws and the Lady Rams couldn’t score in the final seconds, losing 45-41.

The Lady Rams will likely host Colquitt County on Tuesday night.