ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Jefferson City Lady Jays didn't want to get into a scoring battle.
The Kirkwood Lady Pioneers entered Saturday afternoon's Class 5 quarterfinal averaging nearly 70 points per contest. So the Lady Jays wanted to control the tempo to keep the score more to their liking.
The strategy worked for three quarters before Kirkwood opened the fourth with a 10-0 run on its way to a 55-43 victory against Jefferson City at Lindenwood University.
"We got away from what we did in the first half," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said. "Kirkwood picked up their defensive effort, we started rushing some shots, some shots we were hitting in the first half weren't falling."
Jefferson City led 12-11 after a back-and-forth first quarter. After Kirkwood took the lead with a basket early in the second quarter, the Lady Jays scored seven straight points to take a 19-13 advantage. A layup by Micah Linthacum with :08 remaining in the second quarter gave Jefferson City a 25-20 lead at the half.
Lithacum had 13 first-half points for Jefferson City.
"We got the ball to her and she did a good job of finishing," Conway said.
On the other bench, Kirkwood was frustrated with just 20 points. It was time for Lauryn Miller, a senior who has signed with UCLA, to step up after scoring just four points on five shots in the first two quarters.
"She got a real nice pep talk at halftime," Kirkwood coach Monica Tritz said.
Miller, who averages 18.1 points per game, added eight to her total in the third quarter as Kirkwood cut its deficit to 37-35 with one quarter to play.
"She responded really well," Tritz said.
The Lady Jays weren't surprised Miller, who finished with 17 points, saw the ball more.
"We thought they would find Miller and make sure she would start getting touches," Conway said.
While the Lady Pioneers scored on their first five possessions of the fourth quarter to take the lead, the Lady Jays were struggling to get off a shot.
"We just lost the momentum for a few minutes and couldn't get it back," Conway said.
Jefferson City had three turnovers, a missed 3-pointer and two missed free throws to start the quarter.
"Our effort was good, we were still playing hard," Conway said. "We got kids open, we just weren't hitting shots that we were hitting earlier in the game."
The closest Jefferson City would get the rest of the way was six points at 49-43 after a short jumper by Caitlin Anderson with three minutes remaining.
The Pioneers were 13-of-14 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
"Once we lost the lead, we were behind the 8-ball because they pulled the ball out to make us foul them," Conway said. "And they're a good free-throw shooting team."
Jayla Everett, who finished with a game-high 21 points for Kirkwood, converted all six of her attempts from the line in the final quarter.
The 12-point final margin was Kirkwood's biggest lead of the game.
"It's disappointing to finish just one game from getting to Columbia, but we played well," Conway said.
Linthacum finished with 20 points to lead fourth-ranked Jefferson City (25-4) and was 6-of-7 at the free-throw line.
The Lady Jays lose five seniors - Lexy Haug, Sydney Crockett, Alaina Allsbury, Sarah Hirst and Shaina Anderson - from consecutive 20-plus win teams.
"There are a lot of teams that would like to finish 25-4 and accomplish what we have this season," Conway said. "The seniors really filled some roles and we're going to miss them."
Kirkwood (26-3, ranked No. 2) advances to Friday night's semifinal against Rock Bridge (25-5, ranked No. 6) at Mizzou Arena. Game time is 7:45 p.m.
Kirkwood finished second in the state last season, falling to Kickapoo in the title game.