An ugly win is still a win, and the Lathrop girls basketball team won ugly on Thursday night.

The Spartans scored the first eight points of the Western Athletic Conference contest with Johansen and led until the Vikings ended the fourth quarter on a 12-0 run to force overtime. Lathrop freshman Shakara Porter scored all four Spartans points in the extra period, while Johansen missed five free throws in overtime to give Lathrop the 53-51win.

With 1 minute, 22 seconds remaining in the extra period, Porter (eight rebounds, four points, four steals) hit both ends of a one-and-one to put the Spartans (5-0 WAC, 12-6 overall) ahead for good at 53-51.

“I was trying to not listen to the crowd,” Porter said. “I had to stay in my mind set and shoot the ball without overthinking it. I was feeling pressure at first, but then my teammates told me to calm down, so I took a breath and shot the ball.”

Earlier in the extra period Porter took a pass from Alaba Olalaye and muscled it in to tie the score at 51-51.

“I was going to pass that ball out,” Porter said. “But my coaches have been working on me with my confidence and my shooting and I saw the opportunity and I took it.”

Lathrop coach Dwayne Davis is pleased with his young player’s progress.

“As a freshman, she has come so far,” Davis said of Porter. “In the games we played earlier in the year she felt like a junior high player on the varsity, but she was able to get a lot of good time in the pre-season and down in San Diego.

“I don’t even hesitate if I have to turn around and bring her in. It’s not even for the scoring — she is just now starting to get a feel for the game. She is a young bull on the floor.”

The two teams traded turnovers in the final 45 seconds of the game with the Vikings inbounding the ball under their basket with 5.6 seconds remaining. As with most of the Johansen points scored in the 14-4 run up to this point, the Vikings (2-3, 9-8) passed into the key in an attempt to muscle up a game-tying basket.

The Spartans’ Kalani Soriano would not have anything to do with that. As Brenda Constancio (11 points) started to go up for a shot, Soriano knocked the ball loose, and Johansen never got the last shot off.

“To be honest, I just played that steal like I always play,” Soriano said. “I always listen to coach about playing the inside middle on any kind of inbounds play. I just knew that she (Constancio) was coming in because every play they do the same thing with someone popping in. 

“I made the switch with Alaba (Olaleye) and we had it covered. I knew I played smart and wasn’t touching anywhere I shouldn’t, and then the defense was on it.”

According to Davis, Soriano has grown quite comfortable defending the key.

“Kalani has been a godsend,” Davis said. “Kalani has worked her tail off. She has the footwork down and she deflects a lot of balls out of the middle.

“I am real comfortable with her manning the middle. Before, we were wondering if we were going to have to play by committee, but she has taken ownership of the middle. We don’t worry about if she is going to score, because she gets her hands on a lot of balls.”

Lathrop committed an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers.

“We work on pressure situations tirelessly,” Davis said. “With this group, we have to come to the realization that this is the first time they have been put into this type of spot. The game got a little tight so they got a little tight.

“This is what we do every day. We run pressures every day because that’s what we do. We had it turn on us because we weren’t recognizing the moment. We were just giving the ball up.”

Olaleye (six rebounds, two assists, two steals) and Marianna Delgado led the Spartans with 14 points apiece. Sanah Sunner added a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds with three assists and three steals.

Johansen’s Alize Martinez led all scorers with 20 points.

The Spartans host Mountain House on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

Junior varsity

Lathrop 34, Johansen 27

The Spartans ended the game on a 6-2 run.

Lathrop’s Kirat Sidhu scored nine of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Freshman

Lathrop 24, Johansen 12

Tatiana Lopez scored 10 points for the Spartans.