WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons and the Hallsville Lady Indians have become very familiar with each other this season.
Maybe too familiar.
"We didn't have much new to throw at them," Blair Oaks coach Kevin Kohler said Monday after the Lady Falcons' 41-38 win in their third meeting of the season against the Lady Indians.
Blair Oaks also won the two previous meetings, beating Hallsville in the fifth-place game of the Tri-County Conference Tournament and again last Monday in the first round during the Southern Boone Classic. Both of those wins were by double-digit margins.
Monday's game was a much closer battle.
"There's no surprises this time of the year," Kohler said. "Everybody has film on everybody. You don't pull any tricks on anybody. You just have to muscle up and play hard."
Blair Oaks scored the first eight points of the game while Hallsville missed its first six shots. But once Hallsville's Hannah Stephens entered the game for the first time at the 2:51 mark of the first quarter, the flow of the game began to change.
The 5-foot-11 Hallsville senior went coast-to-coast and scored a layup in the closing seconds of the opening quarter, cutting the Blair Oaks lead to 11-7. Stephens scored her team's first six points of the second quarter, which included another drive the length of the floor for a layup.
Stephens finished the game with 19 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Lady Indians.
"She was hurting us on the boards," Kohler said. "She's just very physical. She doesn't look like it because she's a little thin, but she's physical and she plays hard."
Blair Oaks was held without a field goal for a stretch of 7:23 in the first half. Brooke Boessen ended the drought with a basket at the 4:46 mark of the second quarter and Sydney Wilde followed with the Lady Falcons' only 3-pointer of the game.
Halie Rackers added a layup in the final minute of the first half to give Blair Oaks a 24-15 lead at intermission.
The Lady Falcons opened the second half with another scoring drought and a 10-0 Hallsville run gave the Lady Indians a 27-26 lead.
The lead changed hands four times in the final minute of the third quarter. Hannah Ricketts scored a reverse layup at the buzzer to give Hallsville a 31-30 advantage.
"That was kind of a wakeup call for us," Kohler said. "Thankfully we came out and played a little better in the fourth quarter."
Boessen gave Blair Oaks the lead for good with a basket on its first possession and added a short jumper from the left side of the lane to push the lead to 37-33 with 5:23 to play.
"She's left-handed, and people aren't always ready for that," Kohler said of Boessen, who led Blair Oaks with 13 points and 10 rebounds. "She's just so quick at the post. She played a good game, she played with energy."
The Blair Oaks defense shut down Hallsville in the fourth quarter. The Lady Indians missed their first 12 shots of the quarter and finished the game shooting just 22.2 percent from the field.
Hallsville didn't make a field goal until Lydia Loethen scored with :05 left to trim the Blair Oaks lead to 40-38.
Kellie Fredendall made 1-of-2 free throws with :03.4 left to make it a three-point margin. As Hallsville pushed the ball down the floor for a final shot, Stephens was called for traveling with :00.9 on the clock.
Wilde finished with eight points and Fredendall, one of three Blair Oaks seniors honored on senior night, added seven points and six rebounds.
Macyn Wilbers was in the starting lineup for Monday's game for Blair Oaks. The senior hadn't played since suffering an ACL injury in the season opener against Helias last November.
Hallsville conceded the opening tip to Blair Oaks and Wilbers dribbled the ball across the half-court line. The game was stopped after seven seconds and Wilbers left the court for the final time of her career to a round of applause.
"She was really thrilled," Kohler said. "She pulled a little bit of a fast one on me because she warmed up and I hadn't given her permission, but that was OK.
"She really is advancing very quickly. She's jogging now, she doesn't need to wear her (knee) brace. I'm pleased for that."
Blair Oaks (12-10) will play Thursday at Eldon.
In a two-quarter JV contest, Blair Oaks won 23-20 to improve to 15-1. Abby Girard led the Lady Falcons with eight points.