The beginning of the game was good for the Jefferson City Lady Jays. The ending wasn't bad.
But the meat of the sandwich left a little something to be desired.
The Lady Jays jumped out to a 12-0 lead after the first quarter against Alton, Ill., in Monday's opening round of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational. Then Jefferson City put together a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter.
But the second and third quarters were frustrating head-scratchers on the offensive end as the Lady Jays defeated the Redbirds 38-24 at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"It was a really good first quarter, we executed well," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said. "But then we couldn't put the ball in the hole. We were missing a lot of point-blank stuff and it wasn't just one person.
"The shots we usually hit in games and in practice, we just weren't hitting."
Jefferson City was 6-of-9 from the field in the opening quarter and looked like it was going to cruise to an easy victory. But the wheels came off in the second quarter as the Lady Jays were just 1-of-14 and took a 14-8 lead into halftime.
"Once we started missing shots, it really caused us to stop moving like we should in our offense," Conway said.
And while the 14 wasn't a great halftime point-total, holding someone to eight through two quarters was a positive.
"Defensively, we did OK for the game," Conway said.
The Lady Jays matched their first-half total with a 14-point third quarter. Megan Foster had a pair of 3-pointers for Jefferson City in the period.
"Those kind of got us going again," Conway said.
Then in the fourth quarter, Caitlin Anderson consistently drove to the basket for the Lady Jays and had six of Jefferson City's 10 points in the period.
"She got aggressive and got into the lane and got us some baskets," Conway said.
Jefferson City came into the game on a three-day break for Christmas.
"Hopefully we knocked the rust off," Conway said. "And the pie and the turkey and all that other stuff.
"It wasn't a pretty win, but we're going to the right side of the bracket and we'll take it."
Foster finished with 12 points to lead Jefferson City, while Anderson totaled 11. Lexi Haug paced the Lady Jays with seven rebounds.
Jefferson City (8-2) advances to face St. Joseph Benton (8-0) in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. today. St. Joseph Benton rolled to a 69-33 win against Eureka to open the tournament Tuesday afternoon.
"They play good solid defense and on offense, they always have kids who are looking to attack the basket to go along with a couple of outside shooters," Conway said. "They know the system and they do it very well. We're going to have to do a better job on both ends of the floor."
Laharvia Brown scored a game-high 13 points for Alton (1-8), while Jewel Wagner pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Alton and Eureka (4-4) will meet at 2:30 p.m. in a loser's bracket contest.