The North Central High School girls basketball team snapped an eight-game losing streak to Ben Davis on Saturday night. But it wasn’t nearly as easy as it might have been.

The Class 4A No. 5 Panthers saw a 13-point lead disappear before they rallied in overtime for a 62-54 victory over the visiting Giants in Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference action. North Central (13-2, 4-0 MIC) led 43-30 early in the fourth quarter before Ben Davis (10-5, 1-3) went on an 18-1 tear to grab a 48-44 lead with less than a minute left.

North Central senior Kiara Scott hit her first free throw with 8 seconds left. When Scott missed her second attempt, senior teammate Rachael Gregory grabbed the rebound and turned it into a three-point play to tie it with 6.7 seconds left.

“Rachael is 100 percent effort every minute that she is in there,” Panthers first-year coach DeeAnn Ramey said. “She’s picking up the rebound. She’s just a workhorse and been that way for us all year.” Gregory said the team stayed positive during the Giants’ run.

“As a team we didn’t give up,” Gregory said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” The Panthers scored the first eight points of overtime to take control with a 56-48 lead. Junior guard Celeste Edwards began the run with a 3-pointer.

“Once we believed in ourselves to get to that overtime, our enthusiasm picked up,” Ramey said. “Then we were able to dominate the overtime.”

Junior forward Jasmine Falcon led the Panthers with 15 points. Edwards added 14 and Gregory 11. Edwards had seven points in overtime.

“We need Celeste playing like she did in overtime the whole game,” Ramey said. “She’s up and down, but she showed what she can do in the overtime, and she’s a very dominant player.”

Ramey was disappointed her team lost the big lead.

“That’s been our problem; we don’t understand game management,” she said. “We’ve been working on that. There is no way it should have gotten to overtime. But I’m very proud we were able to come back.”

Senior guard Jade Mills-Harris was the Giants’ high scorer with 14 points. Fellow senior guard Shareita Patton added 12, including eight in the fourth quarter.

The Giants won the first meeting 40-35 on Dec. 10 in the semifinals of the Marion County tournament.

“It feels great to beat Ben Davis. The seniors haven’t done that,” Gregory said. “It feels good we fought back and did it.”

Star reporter Mark Ambrogi