Brooklynn Nash didn’t want to go home this early.

The Tompkins senior was not ready for her high school basketball career to end in the first round of the playoffs, and she took it upon herself to make sure it didn’t happen.

“I did not want this to be my last game,” Nash said. “The whole time I kept looking up at the score like ‘I’m not coming out of here with a loss.’ I knew I wanted to keep going because this is my last year and I want to see how far we can go.”

Nash made sure it wasn’t her last game, scoring 19 points while coming away with six rebounds and five steals as Tompkins outlasted George Ranch 52-47 in an overtime matchup in the Class 6A bi-district round.

“She has just grown so such since she was a sophomore and even from when she was a junior on varsity,” said Tompkins head coach Tammy Ray. “She has a lot of patience and good vision and anticipation of how the defense will do to her. She has a really good setup, changes speed so well and works at her craft a lot.”

It was George Ranch that came out with the first punch, but Tompkins took it and fought back.  George Ranch led 11-10 after the first quarter and 19-18 at halftime, but Tompkins kept adjusting and finding ways to be successful.

Junior guard Macy Spencer had 21 points on the night but George Ranch did a good job keeping the ball out of her hands, which opened up extra opportunities for Nash.

“I knew that with the full court press they were running that they were playing really tight on me, and I knew that there would definitely be an opportunity for me to have some blow byes,” Nash said. “I knew that when I did that and I got past my defender it would open up things for both me and my teammates.”

Tompkins finally took the lead late in the third and took a 31-30 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Falcons and George Ranch continued to go back and forth and George Ranch took a three point lead with 1:12 remaining in regulation, but Tompkins fought their way back and after a steal and basket from Kayla Boven with 30 seconds left took the lead, but George Ranch tied things up at 43 to send the game to overtime.

“I can’t say enough about Kayla Boven,” Ray said. “She’s a varsity basketball player, she’s a varsity soccer player and she goes back and forth all the time. Jarrett Shipman and I, we get our calenders out and see when we both need her and she actually had her backpack ready to go to play soccer tonight if she needed. She’s a difference maker, we’re different without her. Two of our three losses this year came when we were without her.

George Ranch kept coming back in overtime, but every time they got within one, Tompkins increased the lead and eventually came away with the win.

Tompkins will play Stratford in the area round, time and location to be determined.

“This game made us stronger,” Boven said. “We had a lot of support today, especially from our football team. We just know we have to keep pushing through and even if we’re down, we know we can always come back.”

Class 6A Bi-District

Tompkins 52, George Ranch 47

Points: (T) Macy Spencer 21, Brooklynn Nash 19, Kayla Boven 4, Fiyin Adeleye 2, Kennedy Boroque 2, Gabby Panter 2, Emma Potts 2; (GR) Savanah Velazquez 15, Lauren Stevens 11, Logan Riley 7, Leslie Forun 7, Rachel Okoye 5,

Halftime: George Ranch 19-18; 3-pointers (T) Spencer 2, Nash; (GR) Velazquez 2, Riley; Records: Tompkins 32-3; George Ranch 19-12