Sometimes it’s not how well you play, but if the breaks fall your way.

Sand Rock and Fyffe waged as an intense high school basketball battle as you’ll ever see for 31 minutes and 50 seconds last Friday at Sand Rock, but the game was decided in the final 9.7 seconds by a referee’s whistle.

With the Lady Wildcats down four points with 11.4 seconds remaining in the game, Sandy Trail sank a three-point basket to draw the hosts within 70-69.

Fyffe then in-bounded the ball, and the Sand Rock defender appeared to force a jump ball.

The official, however, called an intentional personal foul on the Lady Rockers to send the visitors to the free throw line with 9.0 remaining.

The referee then called three technical fouls on the Sand Rock bench, giving Fyffe eight foul shots.

Ashley Stanford proceeded to make seven of those attempts, and Sand Rock soon left the Wildcat Den with a tough-to-swalllow 78-69 Class 2A, Area 13 defeat.

Trailing 32-30 at halftime, the Lady ‘Cats caught fire in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors 21-10 to go up 51-42 at the start of the final period.

The Lady Red Devils shrank the Sand Rock advantage with three straight three-point baskets, however, and the lead exchanged hands five times over the 1:40 before Stanford’s free throws put the game away.

“The girls played very hard, and they did what we asked them to at the end of the game,” said Sand Rock head coach Lisa Bates. “We had a great third quarter and went up several points, but we couldn’t play with the lead in the fourth quarter. We also made only 9-of-22 foul shots, and that really lost it for us.”

The Lady Rockers were on target on the perimeter, connecting on 42% (10-of-24) three-point attempts.

Stanford led Fyffe with 22 points, followed by Lacy Lewis with 18 and Mallory Hancock with 16.

For the Lady Wildcats, Taylor Burt drained four three-point baskets on the way to 23 points.

Jennifer Givens knocked down three treys on the way to 17 points.

Burt grabbed 10 rebounds, while Givens pulled down six.

Burt distributed six assists, while Ashley Beck added four.

After Leis’ foul shot in the first quarter’s final min-ute gave the visitors a 19-18 lead, Fyffe opened the second period with a 10-0 run that pushed the Lady Red Devil advantage to 29-18 at 5:35.

The hosts steadily chipped away at the above lead, though, as Burt’s buzzer-beating trey cut the Fyffe lead to 32-30 at the half.

Sand Rock came out of the locker room with both barrels blazing, as Tiffany Palmer’s lay-up and respective three-pointers from Beck and Burt gave the hosts a 38-32 advantage at 5:48.

Fyffe eventually cut its deficit to 40-39, but Givens scored 10 of her points over the final 4:39 to help provide Sand Rock with a 51-42 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

FYFFE (78): Ashley Stanford 22, Lacy Lewis 18, Mallory Hancock 16, Katie Graben 13, Courtnie Bouldin 9, Jessica Benefield 2, Danyelle Smith 2.

SAND ROCK (69): Taylor Burt 23, Jennifer Givens 17, Ashley Beck 9, Angelique Kordich 7, Sandy Trail 6, Tiffany Palmer 5, Joni Mitchell 2