Russellville's shots finally started to fall.
The Lady Indians (13-10) trailed at Calvary Lutheran 11-4 at the end of the first quarter Thursday, but outscored the Lady Lions (10-7) 48-30 in the final three frames for a 52-41 win. McKendra Fischer had the lone first quarter points for Russellville.
"I think both teams were a little sluggish, early on for sure. It took us awhile to get going," Russellville head coach David Volkart said. "But overall I was proud of my kids, they should a lot of grit, toughness, we got down early and we fought back. Our defense is what got us back in the game and in the second half we were able to execute offensively."
Russellville led 20-16 at halftime after getting 10 points from Chyan Wilkes in the second quarter. The Lady Indians used a 6-0 run to start the third to help open up a 37-28 lead after the quarter. The lead reached 50-37 with two minutes left, and both teams emptied their benches shortly after that point.
The Lady Indians shot 18-of-50 on the night, but were 6-of-10 from 3. Skylar Potts' back-to-back 3's midway through the fourth quarter iced the game for Russellville. She finished 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
Jayla Volkart led Russellville with 13 points, while Fischer had 11 and Wilkes had 10.
"Any time you can make a couple buckets, you know to see when you get good stop you want to see the other end get a score so it fuels off of each other so we got some stops and made some baskets and got a little momentum going and just kept it rolling."
For Calvary Lutheran, meanwhile, the shots stopped falling.
Becca Thompson and Sam Gunn each had four points in the first quarter, and Brooke Rollins added a 3 to pad the early lead. Those ended up being the lone points Gunn and Rollins scored in the game, while Thompson finished 6-of-11 with a team-high 15 points.
The Lady Lions shot 16-of-48, and 7-of-17 from the free throw line. Thompson was the only Lady Lion to score in double-figures.
"We had a lot of good shots they just were not falling," Calvary Lutheran head coach Jonathan Kueck said. "Close to or right under the basket, not falling. Just one of those nights that just don't go your way. I was pleased with how they handled the press at the end of the first quarter but we just weren't able to get our shots to fall."
Kueck, however, is telling his team to just keep shooting.
"Just have faith that they'll continue to fall, trust in your shot," Kueck said. "They'll continue to fall, you know don't give up. They will fall."
Calvary Lutheran assistant coach Bethany Marble added the Lady Lions might just need to change up their shot selection. Yet, like Kueck, she is telling Calvary Lutheran to not get down.
"They may have to look for a different outlet to score," Marble said, "They don't make any of the shots they don't take."
Rebounds also ended up in Russellville's favor.
Russellville out-rebounded Calvary Lutheran 34-20, including the Lady Indians snagging 16 offensive rebounds to Calvary Lutheran's 11 defensive rebounds. Fischer led both teams with 11. Gunn and Abbie Klatt led Calvary Lutheran with four each.
The Lady Lions JV team won 17-12 in a two-quarter game.
Calvary Lutheran will look at snap a three-game losing streak at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at home against Climax Springs. Russellville plays Monday at Linn. The Lady Indians have already played 23 games, and only have two regular season games left.
"It's late in the season so we are looking forward to a light schedule the last couple weeks to get healthy. You know we saw some girls get banged up a bit so we get rested and make a push for districts," Volkart said. "This was an important game for us. Calvary has had a good year and they're a good basketball team and they're also a district opponent so this game was big for us to help us push for maybe a shot at winning the districts. We're gonna build off that and hope it continues."