Hanceville's Victoria Stanley dribbles during Thursday's game.

HANCEVILLE — Payton Golden was cool as could be under pressure in Thursday’s Cullman County Basketball Tournament semifinal.

Quite literally.

The Fairview junior calmly sped by a Hanceville defender and banked in the game-winning layup with 3 seconds left, lifting the second-seeded Lady Aggies to a 45-43 triumph and keeping their hopes for a county tourney three-peat intact.

Golden’s heroics came on the heels of back-to-back timeouts by first-year Fairview coach Justin Billings with 9.8 seconds to go.

“They put pressure on me, and I just did what he told me to do,” Golden said. “That’s all. He called a certain play, and he was like, ‘Just do what you’ve got to do. Take a drive, make them foul you, whatever.’

“So, I just did what I had to do.”

The guard could hardly hold back her feelings following the final buzzer.

“I was so happy,” she said. “It was relief really.”

After trailing the entire first half, the No. 2 Lady Aggies (15-8) outscored third-seeded Hanceville 17-9 in the third quarter and took their first lead on a Molly McKelvy 3-pointer with 2:20 left in the frame.

The Bulldogs (13-9) had one last run in them in the fourth, however, going back up on an 8-0 run spearheaded by Kierra Merriweather’s own six-point tear. Daisy Manasco (rebound and layup) and Isabella McGukin (inside basket) proceeded to give Fairview a 43-41 advantage before Hanceville’s Kelly Pickett squared it up at 43-all with her fourth and final perfect trip to the free-throw line.

Golden took care of the rest, closing out a team-high 12-point performance with the deciding sequence. McKelvy pitched in eight points in the victory, and Manasco added seven.

Pickett provided a game-high 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Merriweather contributed 10.

With a new coach and mostly new-look roster, the Aggies will look to claim their third straight county title against top-seeded and Class 5A No. 8 West Point on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Fairview fell 60-29 in the rivals’ only meeting this season in mid-December.

Be that as it may, Golden believes the Aggies can be much more competitive in the rematch so long as they stick to the gameplan.

The strategy certainly worked on Thursday night.

“Just play as hard as we can,” she said. “Just play as a team.”