COLUMBIA, Mo. - For the first three quarters, Naylor's notable height advantage against the Tuscumbia Lady Lions was a non-factor in Thursday's Class 1 semifinal, with the Lady Eagles missing tons of layups.
But when it came to the decisive final period, Naylor finally found its shooting touch.
The Lady Eagles shot a scorching 73 percent (8-of-11) in the fourth quarter, which included two huge 3-pointers, and ran away from the Lady Lions for a 57-38 win at the Hearnes Center.
That was quite a change from the first three quarters, where Naylor made just 32 percent from the field (14-of-44).
Tuscumbia, meanwhile, couldn't ever get in sync offensively. The Lady Lions made just 13-of-44 shots for the game (30 percent) and got outscored 24-7 in the fourth quarter.
"For us to come out and have our worst offensive game of the year, it hurts," Tuscumbia coach Kyle Middleton said. "Hopefully we would have that at a different time. I don't know if it was the gym, the floor, or if it was just one of those nights."
Middleton added it didn't help that Naylor was likely to make it one-and-out, rebounding any Tuscumbia misses with a starting lineup that included one 6-footer, two players listed at 5-11 and another at 5-10. The Lady Eagles had a 44-28 edge on the boards in the contest.
"Hats off to Naylor, they were a big, physical team," he said. "I thought they really enforced their will on us.
"Naylor did a great job with their defense of holding us to one or two shots a possession. I know that's what they're built to do."
It was obvious rebounding would be key from the start, and Tuscumbia was able to hang with Naylor for a while in that regard.
Naylor's first bucket came on its third shot of its initial possession. The Lady Lions then ripped off a 7-0 run to take its biggest lead of the game, and all seven of those were second-chance points.
But the Lady Eagles got right back into it with a 7-0 run of their own, before Tuscumbia took its last lead of the game right after that on a 3 by Kendra Vaughan that made it 10-9. Naylor took a 16-14 lead after one period.
"Nerves were running rampant," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "We tried to stay as calm as we could. We came out and were worried about the first quarter. Once the first quarter was over, the nerves kind of settled down and we had a much better second quarter."
Naylor had a 9-5 scoring edge in the second to lead 25-19 at halftime. The Lady Eagles shot just 37 percent in the first half (11-of-30) and the Lady Lions were at 25 percent (6-of-24).
"Our best asset is (scoring) and then being able to set up our press, because what we like to do is run full-court," Middleton said. "If we don't make shots, we can't get into our press, we can't put pressure on the ball. We had to play their game compared to our game."
Tuscumbia's Tempary Gunter said Naylor's height advantage was obvious.
"I just think that when we got inside, we got scared," she said. "We couldn't finish down low and we didn't rebound at all."
Vaughan said Naylor was imposing inside.
"I think most of the girls were very intimidated," she said. "I think that's why we didn't drive (to the basket)."
Naylor pushed its lead to eight points less than two minutes into the second half before Tuscumbia made one big push. Back-to-back layups by Vaughan, followed by a 3 from Gunter, closed the gap to 29-28 with 4:15 left in the third and forced Naylor to burn a timeout.
"We made a great run there in the third quarter when we held them to one shot a couple times," Middleton said. "We got out in transition, made a few buckets and put a little pressure on them.
"I was hoping to carry that over to the fourth quarter."
Naylor's lead was 33-31 after three quarters and Tuscumbia shaved another point off it when TaKayla Gunter made 1-of-2 free throws just 18 seconds into the fourth. But that was as close as the Lady Lions would get.
"They used up a lot of energy making that run and you can only chase us around for so long," Deckard said.
Then came perhaps the two biggest shots of the game.
Naylor's Shayna Tharp, who was 3-of-19 at that point, buried a 3 to push the lead to four. After a Tuscumbia turnover, Tharp missed a 3-pointer. But - no surprise - Naylor got the offensive rebound and the ball found its way back to Tharp, who, given a second chance, canned a 3. Those two shots were the start of a 16-2 run that effectively ended the game.
"We've had teams make runs at us, but if we just keep battling and keep controlling the boards, eventually Shayna is going to get loose and hit a couple 3s," Deckard said.
Tuscumbia couldn't halt the run, as the Lady Lions made just 2-of-10 shots in the final quarter. The 19-point margin of victory was Naylor's biggest lead of the game.
"To go in down two in the fourth quarter, I thought, "OK, we've got this,'" Middleton said. "But we didn't really hit a shot early in the fourth quarter to get us back into it. (Naylor) just kept chunking it up, chunking it up and getting a bigger lead."
Naylor freshman Callee Pickrell made 8-of-11 shots from the field while scoring a game-high 18 points. Tharp added 16 on 5-of-23 shooting, while Gracie Gargac of the Lady Eagles led all players with 16 rebounds.
Vaughan had 13 points to pace Tuscumbia, which is making its first-ever Final Four trip, while Tempary Gunter added 10.
Naylor (23-6) advances to play two-time defending state champion Walnut Grove (30-1) at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Mizzou Arena for the championship. Walnut Grove advanced with a 54-38 win against Southwest: Livingston County (23-5), which will face Tuscumbia (27-4) at 4:15 p.m. today at Mizzou Arena.
"Our goal this year, of course, was to get to a Final Four and win a state championship," Middleton said. "Now we have to take a little detour and our goal now is to win third place. We could still make school history and take home a third place.
"When there's over 600 basketball teams in the state of Missouri and 40 of them get to come here, I guarantee they'd give their right arm to be in our place right now. ... I'm not going to let a loss take away this moment from this weekend."