WARDSVILLE - Alan Lepper almost had to wait for his first win as a head coach.
With 5.4 seconds left in Tuesday night's game at Blair Oaks, his Helias Lady Crusaders missed a pair of free throws with a one-point lead.
Fortunately for Helias, Ellie Rockers forced a turnover to give the Lady Crusaders a 48-47 win.
"If we missed them we knew what we were going to do and the girls executed," Lepper said. " I would have felt better if they went in but they didn't go in. We told them to play good defense and not let them have a shot. Luckily we got a hand on it and the ball went our way."
Lepper is now 1-0 as a head coach after spending 10 years as an assistant for the Lady Crusaders.
"I've been doing this for so long I didn't know how I'd react to this," he said.
"I told the kids, I said 'My wife's a graduate from (Blair Oaks) and there's people out there that I love. I've got Blair Oaks family that's here but tonight they weren't family,'" Lepper said with a laugh.
Rockers helped the Helias defense force 12 second-half turnovers to erase a 10-point deficit.
With about 14 seconds left, Blair Oaks got a rebound off a missed free throw in a one-and-one situation. But Rockers snatched the ball away to set up her free throws.
"Ellie is so athletic," Lepper said. "With her volleyball ability, with her jumping ability, she plays taller than she is."
The 5-foot-11 sophomore finished with seven points and 10 rebounds.
"Basically we just told them to go after them," Lepper said. " They dug down deep and went after it."
The Lady Falcons played much of the game without senior Macyn Wilbers, who injured her knee with 1:05 left in the first half.
Wilbers had nine points as Blair Oaks led 20-16.
Blair Oaks led by as many as 10 when Claire Heckman's jumper made it 28-18 early in the second half, but Helias' pressure defense gave Blair Oaks fits.
Helias took a 35-33 lead with 23 seconds left in the third quarter on Lauren Alexander's 3-pointer.
"We think (Wilbers) is going to be OK, but she's the player that can handle that so that was a big difference," Lady Falcons coach Kevin Kohler said.
Blair Oaks got the lead back on a Sydney Wilde free throw and two Brooke Boessen free throws to take a 36-35 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Halie Rackers made a 3-pointer from the corner in the first minute of the final quarter, but Helias answered with six straight points.
Morgan Wieberg hit a long jumper with 5:14 left to give Helias a 41-39 lead. Wieberg led Helias with 18 points. Erin Wyrick added 14 points and five rebounds.
Blair Oaks' final lead came with 2:42 left after Kellie Fredendall made two free throws to make it 47-46. Fredendall led Blair Oaks with 10 points and seven rebounds.
An Alexander layup with 2:27 left was the final bucket of the game.
Blair Oaks was the team forcing turnovers in the first half.
A pass out of bounds for Helias led to a Wilbers 3-pointer in the final minute of the first quarter.
A Wilbers steal in the middle of the second quarter led to her making a pair of free throws to make it a 15-10 lead for the Lady Falcons.
Blair Oaks had a 9-5 advantage in turnovers in the first half.
"We're going to be that kind of team," Kohler said. "We're going to put pressure on people. We've got quickness and we've got a long bench so I think we're going to have a good year."
Blair Oaks (0-1) begins play in the Eugene Tournament at 4:30 p.m. Monday against Eugene.
Helias (1-0) plays Tuesday at Camdenton. The varsity game will start at about 7:30 p.m.
Blair Oaks won Tuesday's JV game 45-38.
Hunter Lauf and Kayla Jones each scored 10 for Blair Oaks.