It wasn't necessarily a spirited halftime talk. But it was detailed.
Despite taking an eight-point lead into intermission, the Jefferson City Lady Jays struggled at times in the first half of Monday night's Class 5 District 8 semifinal against the Troy Lady Trojans at Fleming Fieldhouse.
So Jefferson City coach Brad Conway had a few topics to talk with the Lady Jays about at halftime. Those included:
Offense.
"We were rushing shots, not being patient," Conway said.
Defense.
"We had some breakdowns on our rotations," Conway said.
Intangibles.
"They were out-hustling us to a lot of the 50/50 balls," Conway said.
Message received. The top-seeded Lady Jays opened the third quarter with a 15-0 run on their way to a 52-28 victory against the fourth-seeded Lady Trojans.
"We created things with our defense, that helped us get out and go with our offense," Conway said. "We executed on both ends a lot better."
With the win, Jefferson City (23-3, ranked No. 4 in Class 5) advances to Thursday's title game against Holt (12-13). Holt defeated Battle 37-35 in Monday's second semifinal.
Both teams got off to a slow start in Monday's first game. Jefferson City led 5-0 with a little more than three minutes remaining in the first quarter after Troy's first six possessions ended with five turnovers and one missed shot.
But the Lady Trojans took the lead by scoring six unanswered before a putback by Greta Haarmann of the Lady Jays with :01 left on the clock gave Jefferson City a 7-6 advantage.
"We were trying to rush stuff, we weren't patient," Conway said. "And that showed up in our execution."
Troy scored first in the second quarter to take its final lead of the game at 9-8. Jefferson City then rattled off eight unanswered points in the next two minutes to make it 15-8 on its way to a 22-14 advantage at the half.
The Lady Jays then put the game away with the 15-0 run to start the third quarter and led 37-16 with eight minutes to play. Jefferson City led by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter.
Catlin Anderson, Micah Linthacum and Haarmann all had 11 points to lead Jefferson City. The Lady Jays got 19 points from its reserves in the game.
"We got some good minutes off the bench," Conway said. "We went nine-deep tonight and I think it's great to get that many kids some quality minutes."
Another key in the win was Jefferson City's dominance on the boards as the Lady Jays finished with a 34-13 edge in rebounds against the Lady Trojans. McKenzie Gourley led Jefferson City with seven rebounds.
The championship game will start at 5 p.m. Thursday. Jefferson City and Holt did not play in the regular season.
"We've got two days to get ready," Conway said. "It's great to have another game in our gym and this is a real opportunity that we need to take advantage of."