It was nearly the perfect ending for the Central High School girls basketball team, with sophomore Ciara Wood’s transition basket with about 55 seconds remaining having put the Lady Lions ahead 54-53 and visiting Allatoona having to score as the clock wound under 10 seconds.

But Elise Spann saved the day for the Lady Buccaneers (1-0) and spoiled Central’s hopes of a dramatic victory when she put home the game-winning layup with less than five seconds left in Tuesday’s 55-54 Allatoona win.

The Lady Lions (1-1) threw the ball in and barely were able to call a timeout with half of a second left. Out of the timeout, Central junior forward Shea Nunn threw a long pass to sophomore Julia Gilley, whose long 3-pointer bounced off the back off the rim as time expired.

Lady Lion coach Jimmy LeBlanc said his team was too “frantic” in the final seconds.

“We just weren’t very composed right there,” LeBlanc said.

It was an uneven night for the Lady Lions, who worked through foul trouble for both Nunn, who scored 14, and senior guard Amanda Ake, who had 15. Senior guard Sandria Farris also had 15 points on the night.

LeBlanc said his team committed too many hard fouls early, which put it in a hole late.

“Our kids were putting themselves in bad positions where they had to foul,” LeBlanc said. “And our fouls looked ugly. They were definitely fouls.”

In the end, though, Spann and Alexis Ezell got free inside too often, as the Lady Bucs pulled off the early-season road win. Spann finished with 15 points, Ezell with 11 and Kaitlin Chumley with 10.

Allatoona boys 63, Central 47: The Lions (0-2) kept fighting back after facing a 29-17 deficit at the half, but six points was as close as it would get in the final 16 minutes for Central.

LeBlanc said the first half put his team too far behind for a better second half to make much difference.

“The second half we played a whole lot different, a whole lot more composed, you know,” LeBlanc said. “The first half is what killed us. We didn’t play together.”

The coach considered a matter of discipline for his guys.

“We didn’t show a lot of discipline in the first half,” LeBlanc said.

Junior Cam Holt twice cut it to six in the third quarter, on a dunk that made it 32-26 with 4:51 remaining in the third and on a jumper that trimmed it to 36-30.

But Allatoona (1-0) always had an answer, often from Wahab Oseni, who had a trio of second-half 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 18 points. Oseni’s first 3-pointer of the second half against solid defense got him going as a scorer.

The margin would never be closer than 10 in the final quarter as the Bucs led by as many as 17 en route to the victory in their season opener.

Rashad Rowe led the Lions with 12 points, while Holt added 10 in the loss.

“We are so young, and that’s what I told them in there, you know. It’s going to get better. This is the season to get us ready for the conference schedule, which is going to get us ready for that third season, the tournament time,” LeBlanc said. “As long as we’re learning now, the wins are going to come. We can’t get focused on the win as much as we’ve got to get focused on us playing right.”

In other prep action:

Mt. Zion girls 42, Yeshiva 17: Amanda Puckett led the Lady Eagles (4-0) with 10 points, and Samaria Holland and Jasmine Jackson each added six points.

Yeshiva boys 45, Mt. Zion 41: Christian Heard led the Eagles (3-1) with 23 points in the loss.