After a 7-0 run by the opponent midway through the fourth quarter, Howard girls basketball coach Scott Robinson called a timeout to regroup his players.

Third-ranked Howard had led by as many as 14 points, but Atholton stormed back to take a one-point advantage with roughly five minutes remaining.

In the huddle, Robinson was confident in his girls. They had been in the same situation four days earlier and came out unscathed. He expected the same result Wednesday.

“I told them we had been there before, which we had,” Robinson said. “We were just there Friday night. I felt confident we would come back and win, and we just really wanted to get the ball in the hands of the people that we wanted to get it to.”

His notion was on the mark.

Out of the break the Lions (18-0 overall, 8-0 Howard County) responded with a 7-0 run of their own, achieving an eventual 66-59 road win to stay unbeaten.

“It is really important, mentally, to pull off a fourth quarter like that,” Howard junior forward Taylor Addison said. “I feel like we are such a strong team. We've beaten a lot of really amazing teams and we've been down a lot. Like last Friday we were down to Glenelg in the fourth quarter, and I think we all knew we could do it, and we believe in each other.”

Howard jumped out to a 14-0 lead, which proved crucial down the stretch. The Raiders (11-4, 6-1) struggled to find the basket at the start of the first quarter. Sofia Harrison scored Atholton's first points of the game with 3:56 remaining in the period, ending the Lions' run.

“That is huge,” Raiders coach Julia Reynold said of the early 14-point hole. “They come out and you can't give them an inch. They'll run with it, and we know that. They are an excellent team, so we knew it was going to be a battle. We just kind of told our kids that they had to dig deep and there's four quarters to a basketball game.”

The Raiders began chipping away at the lead in the second quarter, while also getting the Lions in some early foul trouble. Atholton took advantage with a 6-0 run in the opening minutes of the quarter. By halftime, the Raiders had cut Howard's lead to 36-28.

Zhuri Cannon came off the bench to provide Atholton with its first six points of the second half, getting her team within seven.

Addison and Courtney Furr countered with back-to-back baskets for Howard to push the lead back to 11. That prompted Reynold to call a timeout to try to stall the Lions' momentum.

“They fought hard and [I told them to] worry about things that they can control,” Reynold said. “I asked them individually to dig deep. I think it shows a lot of heart. These girls love the game, and they play hard for themselves, but they play hard for each other. They work hard in practice and you start to see results during the game.”

Out of the break, senior captains Ryan Jones and Francesca Vanegas knocked down crucial back-to-back 3-pointers for the Raiders. The momentum quickly shifted, and Atholton used a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to 47-46 entering the final quarter.

Vanegas stayed hot in the fourth quarter and gave Atholton a brief lead. Howard called timeout and got the team back on track, especially defensively, to cement its 18th straight win and grab sole possession of the lead in county standings.

“Fun high school basketball right there,” Robinson said. “I thought in the last few minutes we played better defense and tried to limit them to one shot. And our bench was huge because we were in so much foul trouble.”

Scott led the Lions with 21 points. Lewis followed with 13 and Addison added 10. Sanchez-Henry chipped in with six points off the bench.

Vanegas finished with a team-high 18 for Atholton, followed by Jones (16), Harrison (10) and Cannon (8).