Elizabeth Elliot’s basket with two seconds left in overtime Thursday lifted the Morgan Academy Lady Senators to a thrilling 39-37 win over the host Meadowview Christian School Lady Trojans.

With the game tied at 37, Morgan inbounded the ball from the far sideline. The pass came in to Katie Taylor, who briefly lost control of the ball. As the Lady Trojans went for the steal, Taylor regained control of the ball and passed to Elliot just left of the foul line. Elliot then spun around in a complete circle and, while falling off balance and a defender in her face, made the shot that kissed off the glass and went in just before the final buzzer.

“I’ll take it,” Morgan coach Robert Gartman said. “We timed it out pretty well. We got the ball to Katie on the wing and she got it to Elliot.”

“We made a decision to try and get into the second overtime,” Meadowview Christian coach Mike Cassebaum said. “When we went for the steal, the ball bounced back to them. That’s the breaks.

“We were going to play is straight,” Cassebaum added. “When we went for the steal, things just went their way.”

Elliot’s shot was the continuation of a rally that saw the Lady Senators (3-1) tie the game and send it into the extra period.

Meadowview Christian (3-2) claimed a 33-30 lead when Haley McIntyre faked a drive to the basket and passed back to Elizabeth Wood, who drained a three-pointer from the left wing with 1:23 left in the fourth period.

Morgan Academy, sporting a much more aggressive offense in the second half, got back into the game from the free-throw line as Taylor made the back end of two free-throws to cut the margin to two, 33-31. After two missed foul shots by the Lady Senators, Cursey Oaks saved the day with a driving layup from the right wing with 2.4 seconds to go.

MCS tried a last-second shot to win the game in regulation, but the ball tipped off the front of the rim.

It appeared early on as if Meadowview Christian would come away with the victory, as Morgan Academy struggled in running its offense.

Aly Bradford’s jumper from the top of the key gave the Lady Senators a 6-1 lead halfway through the opening period. But Morgan would go cold and not score for the remainder of the opening quarter.

Fortunately for the Lady Senators, MCS did little better in scoring. The Lady Trojans rallied to knot the game at 6 on a jump shot from the right corner by Brandy Moore.

MCS took its biggest lead of the game, 14-10, into intermission following a jumper by Haley McIntyre from just inside the foul line.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to practice and get into our offensive tempo,” Gartman said. “We started practicing for the first time the Monday after our football season ended. We had maybe four days to practice before the season started. So we decided to slow the game down in the second half. We knew if we could slow the game down, we could get ourselves into a position to win the game.”

The Lady Senators’ slow-moving offense of the first half changed as Morgan Academy came out more aggressive on the boards and running its offense in the second half. The Lady Senators scored the first four points of the third quarter, the final two coming when Elliot’s outlet pass found Laura-Whitney Bennett for an easy layup to tie the game at 14.

Elliot drained a pull-up, 7-footer to end the third period and give Morgan a 25-22 lead.

McIntyre’s turnaround jumper with 4:57 to go gave the Lady Trojans a 27-25 lead.

After the teams traded a free-throw apiece, Morgan tied the game at 28 on two free-throws by McIntyre. Meadowview Christian regained the lead on an Ashton Smith jumper from the corner as she was being fouled. But Smith was unable to convert the extra free-throw for the three-point play, and the MCS lead remained at two.

Morgan Academy will be in action again Monday when the Lady Senators travel to Tuscaloosa Academy.

Meadowview Christian will take to the court again Monday at Coosa Valley.