Up by five points at halftime Thursday, things were looking good for the School of the Osage Lady Indians.
Four minutes into the third quarter, not so much as the Salem Lady Tigers bounced back to lead by seven.
"It was not pretty basketball," Osage coach Scott Rowland said.
But the second-seeded Lady Indians had time on their side. Osage used a 20-point fourth quarter to rally to defeat Salem 42-38 in the semifinals of the Class 4 District 10 Tournament at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"To show the guts to come back and stay with it, I am so happy for the players," Rowland said.
With the win, Osage (21-5) advances to face top-seeded Helias (15-11) in the title game at 4 p.m. Saturday. Helias defeated Marshfield 48-41 in Thursday's first semifinal.
Osage led 8-2 after one quarter, holding Salem off the scoreboard for the first 7:40 of the game. The Lady Indians led by as many as eight in the second quarter before taking a 16-11 advantage into halftime.
Then the wheels came off at the start of the third quarter as Salem rattled off 12 unanswered points to take a 23-16 lead.
"We shot really poorly and made some mistakes and that's because of what Salem did," Rowland said. "They did a great job on the defensive end."
A 3-pointer by Kendal Miller with :02 left pulled the Lady Indians to within four at 26-22 heading into the final period. It was the made 3-pointer of the game for Osage after it missed its first nine attempts from beyond the arc.
"We shot enough to make more," Rowland said. "But they were playing very good defense."
A layup by Peyton Curley with 5:15 remaining gave Salem a 30-24 advantage. But Osage began to climb back into the contest and regained the lead at 37-34 on a 3-pointer by Gabrielle Hill with 1:52 left.
"We kind of sped them up and when we got the lead, they had to chase and I think that made a difference," Rowland said.
Osage never trailed after the Hill basket, leading by as many as five points in the final minute.
Jordyn Bartlett, despite battling foul trouble much of the night, led three Osage players in double figures with 11 points. She also had a game-high 12 rebounds. Kerrigan Gamm and Miller added 10 points each.
Curley finished with a game-high 17 points for Salem, all in the second half. Baylee Bilyeu added 14.