In the final minute of Thursday’s girls basketball game between Plainfield Central and Plainfield East, the two teams were tied.

Plainfield Central got a shot off in the lane with about 13 seconds left, but it missed.

One of the shortest players on the court, Plainfield East’s Gianna Thompson, came down with the rebound and the Bengals’ point guard dribbled up the floor. She got into the lane where she took a scoop shot that went in and gave her team a 53-51 lead.

Central’s attempt at the buzzer was off the mark, and the Bengals came away with the win over their District 202 rivals.

“When I got the ball on that last play, I had the mindset that I wasn’t going to slow down until they stopped me,” said Thompson, who finished with 10 points, eight of which came in the final 10 seconds of a quarter. “I saw that the lane was open, and I knew I could get in the lane and then either shoot or kick it out if they collapsed on me. I took the shot and it went in.

“We were really focused on the mindset of keeping our composure and sticking with our game plan. We trusted each other all game.”

Thompson’s shot put the finishing touch on a game in which the Bengals (7-13, 3-6) fell behind 10-0 at the start, but continued to chip away at the lead.

Plainfield Central (6-10, 2-4) got a pair of baskets by DeAnna Cooley, who led all scorers with 16 points, and a pair of 3-pointers by Mia White (15 points) to move out to a 10-0 lead. East rallied with two straight baskets by Heather Bunker and another by Thompson to cut it to 10-6. White delivered another 3-pointer for the Wildcats, and Madison Roberts added a pair of free throws and Alyssa Link made a baseline jumper at the buzzer to send Central into the second quarter with a 17-6 lead.

“We got off to a great start,” Plainfield Central coach Jason Held said. “We’ve been doing that a lot lately. We just need to keep it up.

“Our girls worked well together tonight. Mia ran the point well, DeAnna did a great job at the wing. This was only [post player] Maeve Carlton’s second game back after an injury, so it’s good to have her back.

“We kept fighting when they were coming back. Their girl made a nice play at the end. I’d much rather lose by two than by 30. We gave ourselves a shot, but sometimes you have to lose games like this in order to learn how to win them.”

The Wildcats held the lead throughout the second quarter and took a 27-21 lead into halftime. In a sign of things to come, Thompson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the Bengals.

Cooley hit a driving basket to start the second half for Central before East’s Khloe Oglesby made back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the lead to 29-27.

A 3-pointer by Cooley made it 32-27 before East went on an 8-0 run. Valeria Ramos (15 points) gave the Bengals their first lead at 33-32, and Bunker scored to make it 35-32.

Ella Page then delivered a steal and layup for the Wildcats and was fouled. She made her free throw to complete the old-fashioned three-point play and tied it at 35.

White made a pair of free throws for a 37-35 Wildcat lead and Emma Konieczny followed with a putback for a 39-35 edge. East’s Emma Rodgers (7 points, 5 rebounds) scored twice in a row to tie it again before Cooley scored on a short jumper for a 41-39 lead. With 9.4 seconds left in the quarter, Thompson converted a three-point play to send the Bengals into the fourth with a 42-41 lead.

DiMora Shelton (9 points, game-high 12 rebounds) scored to start the fourth for East, but Cooley tied it with a 3-pointer. After a free throw by Rodgers, Cooley hit another 3-pointer for a 47-45 Wildcat lead. Ramos then turned a steal into a layup, then scored on a jumper for a 49-47 Bengal lead.

White scored back-to-back baskets for Central, the second coming with 1:08 to play to give them a 51-49 lead. Ramos tied it with 59 seconds to play on a pair of free throws to set up Thompson’s winning basket.

“We struggled a little bit early, but once we cleaned things up, we were a lot better,” East coach Anthony Waznonis said. “We really locked into our man-to-man defense and wanted to make them take long, contested two-point shots. We also rebounded well and got some second-chance points.

“The girls stuck with the game plan and we were balanced offensively. This was a good game against two evenly-matched teams.”