Dianne Lewis and the Edison girls' basketball team always has an ace up its sleeve: the press.

Down 34-20 after Hayfield senior guard Taylor Jewett nailed one of her three 3-pointers with 3:13 to play in the third quarter, Lewis asked her Eagles to turn up the pressure on defense.

She had no other choice in the face of a 19-0 Hawks' run that stretched all the way back to the end of the second quarter, when Edison was leading 20-15.

In the final 11 minutes, Edison outscored Hayfield 28-14 en route to a 48-44 comeback win.

And Lewis wasn't even sure she was going to trust her squad with a full-court defense. She didn't want to get blown out.

"I told them if we pressed again, they were going to have to show me the rotation was going to be fine," Lewis said. "We came back on them with the press and that just happened to be our bread and butter today."

Hayfield's seniors have never won against Edison, and their inexperience with a lead against their cross-town rival showed.

"I think we got nervous and it just went downhill from there," said Jewett, who finished with 12 points to lead the Hawks.

The comeback began when Ruth Sherrill, who led all scorers with 15 points, hit a couple of free throws to end the Edison drought; Averi Collins and Kierra Graham hit two easy shots; and turnovers and missed lay-ups plagued Hayfield. After Jewett hit another 3-pointer to make it 39-35 with 5:55 to go in the game, Sherrill scored four straight points to tie it, 39-39, at the five minute mark.

The Edison comeback preceded a four-minute stretch during which each team traded baskets. Sherrill and Christine Dua made shots for the Eagles while Brandi Smith and Shannen Cochraham answered for the Hawks.

After Hayfield's Jasmine Young missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 45 seconds to play and the Hawks up, 44-43, Edison's Krystyna Watts found herself with the ball in the Hayfield half of the court.

Watts, standing just past the foul line near the right elbow, hesitated for second, looking for a teammate inside. When no one came open, she put up the jumper.

"I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, if it was going to go to the other side," said the senior, who scored six points.

But the shot was true, and Edison took the lead for good at 45-44. Graham and Brittany Allen hit free throws for the final margin. A desperation 3-point shot by Cochraham bounced off the gym ceiling as time expired, but wouldn't have made a difference in the game unless she had made the shot and been fouled.

Watts said it was the biggest shot of her career.

"Her shot was not falling tonight," said Lewis, whose team moved to 4-1 (1-0 National District). "So to have that confidence to take that shot right then and there was huge and I'm glad she did. She could have just pulled the ball out. And I'm glad she had the confidence to take that shot."

The Eagles end the first semester with a game at Mount Vernon on Dec. 21 before taking two weeks off. They'll come back from the winter break with a game at Stuart on Jan. 4.