Jada Piper's three-point basket late in the fourth quarter ignited a final Thomas Jefferson surge in a crucial 48-39 South Puget Sound League North division girls basketball upset of fourth place Kentlake on Tuesday at Jefferson High School.

By winning, the Lady Raiders (5-6) stayed one game behind fifth place Auburn (6-5) and closed in on the Lady Falcons (6-4) as the regular season playoff positions loomed ahead.

"Our defense held them to 39 points," Raider head coach Jerry Krueger said. "It was nothing fancy. We played a hard-working man-to-man defense. Every time they got close, we responded and got some breaks this time. In the fourth quarter, we had to value our possessions."

With 5:22 remaining in the fourth quarter and Jefferson maintaining a wafer-thin 35-34 lead, Jada Piper launched a three-point try just before the 30-second shot clock buzzed. Off angle for a nearly straight on shot, the ball amazingly banked off the glass perfectly to the delight of Lady Raider supporters.

Following an several exchanges of turnovers, Kentlake gained possession and called time out with just more than four minutes left. Once the ball was inbounded, Unique Taufa'asau stole a pass and darted for a lay up. Hannah Kiyohara then pilfered the ball in in the Jefferson backcourt and dribbled coast-to-coast for a 42-34 Jefferson command with 2:42 showing on the scoreboard clock.

Kentlake responded with a lay up before TJ called time out with 1:32 remaining. Seeing the expected patterns unfold, Taufa'asau drew her arm back and unloaded a quarterback style home run pas that hit hit a streaking Kiyohara in full stride. Fouled on the drive, Kiyohara swished two free throws through the hoop. The Falcons could only muster up a three-point goal against Jefferson's four points to end the contest.

"When the coach says shoot the ball, I do what he says," explained the the talented freshman who finished with ten points. "It seems when we play good teams, we play better. This was a tough game and we just stuck it out as a team."

Jefferson began with a swarming defense with box out and run tactics to run off the first four points of the game and later establish a 12-8 lead before settling for a 12-10 margin going into the second quarter.

As the game evolved into a half court struggle, the Raiders held their ground to emerge with a 20-16 halftime lead.

Building up an eight point third quarter lead, Jefferson had to repulse another Falcon rally that trimmed the lead to 28-27. Taufa'asau's power move basket and a Piper three-pointer had the Raiders in command, 33-27, after three quarters.

Morganne Comstock's three-point goal brought Kentlake within 35-34 only to have Jefferson turn them back down the stretch.

"This kind of puts us back in the hunt," concluded Krueger.

Jefferson shot 15-of-20 from the free throw line to help its efforts.
Taufa'asau hustled to a Raider game high of 17 points and Kiyohara addec 11. For the Falcons, 6-foot-1 Comstock scored a game high 19 points.