It was not easy, but the King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team improved to 19-0 on Monday night in Portsmouth.

Host Woodrow Wilson High School forced two overtimes, but the Lady Bulldogs finally overtook the Lady Presidents for good on an Amesha Miller basket with around 10 seconds left on the clock, claiming a 66-64 victory.

“My kids persevered,” King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana said. “They played hard. They fought it out to the end. Things could have went a different way as far as offense and defense, but my kids, they kept fighting. That made the difference in the game for the night.”

Wilson is one of the top teams in the area, but the Lady Bulldogs are currently considered the best. While Fofana said he did not expect his team to need double overtime to win, “I know that everybody’s going to compete hard against us, so anything is possible.”

He described the game as back and forth, with each team gaining advantages but never taking control.

The Lady Presidents were up 22-19 after the first period, but the game was knotted at 33-33 by halftime. King’s Fork took a 44-42 lead into the fourth quarter and held a two-point advantage with approximately eight seconds to go in regulation.

“We were winning, and they made two foul shots to tie the game,” Fofana said, after noting that Wilson took 45 foul shots on the night.

Then, the Lady Bulldogs pushed the ball up the floor in transition. Junior forward Amesha Miller was dealing with a double team, as was the case for much of the night, so Fofana said the plan was to get a shot for either sophomore point guard Camary Harris or junior guard Cydney Nichols.

Harris managed to get a shot off, but it was not close, Fofana said, leaving the score at 52-52 as time expired.

Each team scored six points in the first overtime session.

“We actually went up the six points that we scored,” Fofana said. “Then they scored their six.”

During the course of the period, King’s Fork senior forward Latonia Thomas and Nichols fouled out.

Still, the Lady Bulldogs again got the ball with the chance to win in the waning moments when senior guard Jac’Quazja Council got a steal. She raced forward with the ball, then pulled up for a jumper from about 15 feet out but missed.

The 58-58 tie led to the back-and-forth second overtime. With around 10 seconds remaining in that session, the score was 64-64, and King’s Fork had possession.

Fofana said he took a timeout to lay out his plan, and the girls executed it.

“We got it down low, we got it to Amesha, she had a turnaround shot,” he said, which went in.

Next, Wilson called a timeout to plan its last play.

“We defended it well,” Fofana said. “They got off a shot that wasn’t close to the basket.”

Miller put together a remarkable game, finishing with 26 points, 21 rebounds and three blocks.

“It was such a hard-fought game, I don’t even know if I could put a label on the performance that she had,” Fofana said. He eventually chose the word “phenomenal.”

“She was a force underneath the basket, and she scored 26 points with a double team most of the night,” he said.

Also fueling the Lady Bulldogs was Camary Harris with 11 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists and Cydney Nichols with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

King’s Fork (19-0, 7-0) hosts Churchland High School on Wednesday.