Olivia Lucero played for the first time Thursday night after missing three games with a concussion. But she must have remembered how she played the last time she and her Highland teammates tangled with Dobson.

Lucero, a 5-foot-8 junior guard, scored all nine of her points in the final quarter to protect a narrow lead and guide Highland to a 55-47 victory over visiting Dobson in a Division I girls basketball game.

"She just got cleared to play (Wednesday) and got to practice for an hour because we had to cut it short for wrestling," Highland coach Miner Webster said. "She was a big factor the last time we played. This game was exactly like the first one. Close all the way, we got the lead late and hung on."

The game's largest lead was the margin of the final score, but it was much tighter. Lucero, who sank a big three and scored 16 points the last time the teams met three weeks ago in the semifinals of Highland's Thanksgiving Tournament, stung Dobson again.

With the game tied a final time at 41 with 5:22 left to play, Lucero sank her only field goal fo the night from 3-point range for a 44-41 Highland lead at the 5:03 mark. She added 6-of-6 free throws in the quarter as well -- four in the final minute after Dobson was forced to hurry shots and foul.

"We really had trouble early because Dobson was more aggressive and played with more energy than we did," Webster said. "Luckily (guard) Jordan (Hagen) got us going in the second quarte. And we did a good job shooting free throws. I think we were 17-of-19."

Dobson (9-5 overall and 3-1 in power point games, got 18 points from junior Katherine Hamilton and 16 from sophomore Tori Lloyd. They combined for 19 of Dobson's 24 points in the second half. Dobson coach Tyler Dumas was not dissatisfied in the least with his team's play, especially after being away for nearly a week after the death of his father.

"I was very happy with our effort," Dumas said. "We have to progress and we need the situations we had in this game. We're playing with a lot of young players, and the more they have games like this the better. It came to down to a matter of a few possessions at the end we didn't finish or plays we didn't make."

Highland improved to 12-1 and 6-1 in power-point games. The Hawks got 11 points from Hagen (all in the first half) and Amy Pavlica, eight from Kathleen Cabrera and eight  from Krysta Buntrock.