It was a run the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons couldn't recover from.
The St. Joseph Benton Lady Cardinals used an 8-0 spurt midway through the second quarter Thursday night to push their lead to double-digits on their way to a 47-31 win against Blair Oaks in the opening round of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"Things just got away from us a little bit," Blair Oaks coach Darren Heckman said.
With the game tied at 4 in the opening quarter, Benton held Blair Oaks scoreless for more than five minutes to take a 12-4 lead. A layup by Makenna Kliethermes cut the Lady Falcons' deficit to 12-6 heading into the second quarter.
A free throw by Brooke Boessen pulled Blair Oaks to within four at 13-9 with 5:40 to go before halftime. That's when Benton went on its run, which included a pair of 3-pointers by Jayde Williams, to take a 21-9 advantage.
Williams finished with three 3-pointers in the quarter as Benton took a 24-12 advantage into halftime.
Blair Oaks was 4-of-13 from the field and 3-of-7 at the free-throw line in the first half.
"We got the ball inside, we just didn't finish by either missing the shot or not making our free throws," Heckman said.
The Lady Falcons could not cut the deficit to single digits in the third quarter as the Lady Cardinals took a 38-22 advantage into the fourth quarter.
"We had a great effort, we kept playing hard, we did some good things," Heckman said. "We just got a little frustrated at times, we need to react better sometimes. But we'll be OK."
Benton led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter.
"They guard really well and they are fundamentally sound," Heckman said. "It's hard to replicate what they do defensively in practice.
"We knew coming in it was going to be difficult what we want on the offensive end because they can frustrate you. They took us out of what we wanted to do a lot of the time."
Kliethermes finished with 11 points to lead Blair Oaks. Claire Heckman led the Lady Falcons with five rebounds.
Mia Henderson finished with a game-high 16 points for Benton, 14 coming in the second half after she sat much of the second quarter after getting her second foul. She also pulled down nine rebounds. Williams added 12 points, 11 of which came in the first half.
Benton finished with just three turnovers, none in the second half.
Blair Oaks (7-3) will take on Eureka (4-4) in the loser's bracket semifinals at 4 p.m. today.
"We knew coming in we were going to play bigger schools, everybody's got some talented players," Darren Heckman said. "The good thing is we don't have to wait five days to play again, we're going to get right back out there."
Benton (8-0), the defending Invitational champion, will face Helias (8-1) in the winner's bracket semifinals at 7 p.m. today.