TROY — When all was said and done on Wednesday afternoon, the Central-Hayneville High Lady Lions had moved one step closer to a trip to Birmingham.

Central-Hayneville, who knocked off Alabama Christian in the Semi-finals of the girls’ 3A Southeast Regional, held at Troy University, will face the winner of Barbour County/Dadeville on Saturday, bright and early at 9 a.m.

Trailing 32-26 to start the final period, the Lady Lions fell even further behind, allowing ACA to string together an early 4-2 run to push ahead 34-28, and then expanded their lead to 38-33.

From there, however, it was all Hayneville. The Lady Lions, led by April Williams’ 26 points stormed back into the game, cutting the Lady Eagle lead to a basked.

Williams gave the Lady Lions the one-point lead with a field goal with 59 seconds left to play.

Sherelle Ivory pushed Central Hayneville further ahead with a free throw, 40-38 and then Lavonda McCall added another pair of freebies to give Central some breathing room by sinking the front and back end of a pair of free throws.

With :07 left to play, following a Lady Eagle timeout, ACA launched themselves back into the game with a last second triple by Carlie Ainsworth.

ACA’s defense forced Central-Hayneville to turn the ball over on the inbound.

The Lady Eagles immediately called the timeout. Williams got the ball back for the Lady Lions as the horn sounded, sealing the 42-41 victory.

CHHS will match up with Dadevilletoday for a berth into the Final Four in Birmingham. Tipoff for today’s Southeast regional championship is set for 9 a.m. The Southeast winner will meet Southwest winner on March 1 at noon in the BJCC.