ELDON - It was a case of déj vu all over again.
When the Jamestown Eagles and St. Elizabeth Hornets met all the way back on Nov. 21 to start the season, the third quarter held the key to a Jamestown victory.
Three months later, not much had changed.
The Eagles used a 16-3 scoring advantage in the third quarter Saturday night, sparking them from a 26-19 halftime deficit to a 44-39 victory in the championship game of the Class 1 District 9 Tournament at Eldon High School.
"I've got a great group of kids," Jamestown coach Seth Thomas said. "They were energetic despite what happened in the first half. Nobody gave up."
In the season opener for both teams, Jamestown outscored St. Elizabeth by 17 in the third quarter to claim a victory. You got the feeling the same thing was happening when the Eagles started Saturday's second half with a 14-0 run.
"The third quarter has been a struggle for us all season," St. Elizabeth head coach Dillon Tenholder said. "The first time we played them, we were up at halftime and they outscored us 21-4 in the third quarter and that was the ballgame."
The 14-0 outburst was a team effort, as Jamestown got 3-pointers by Clark Rohrbach, Austin Flippin and Cole Theissen, a free throw by Garrett Wolfe and two layups by Trenton Barbour.
"Nobody's afraid to take a big shot," Thomas said. "We had a lot of kids that weren't hitting shots early, but that didn't stop them from taking big shots in the second half."
Jamestown eventually took its biggest lead of the night when Barbour made a layup with 1:29 left in the third to make it 35-27.
The Eagles' lead was 35-29 after three, but the game was far from over.
The Hornets got the ball twice in the closing minutes down by just three points. But they turned it over both times, part of an 18-turnover night. Still, Tenholder said he's proud of how his players gave themselves a chance to come back after the struggles in the third quarter.
"It shows how we changed as a team," he said. "Early in the year, guys would start fighting with each other. It took so much heartache to get rid of that, but they finally became a team halfway through the season.
"We went through our struggles, losing some close games, then they came together and started picking each other up, instead of me having to do it."
The fourth quarter wasn't the prettiest offensive period of the night. Jamestown held on while making just 2-of-7 from the field and 5-of-11 from the free-throw line, while St. Elizabeth was 3-of-10 from the field and 3-of-4 at the line.
But the Eagles will take the win, no matter how it played out.
"Energy and intensity have been our calling card all year, and we picked it up another notch in the second half," Thomas said.
The game started slowly, as St. Elizabeth led just 2-1 after almost 2 minutes. But that's when the Hornets got hot, hitting three of their first five 3-point attempts, going up 13-7. St. Elizabeth led 13-9 after one quarter.
The Hornets took their biggest lead of the night at 20-12 with 5:20 left in the second quarter when Mason Kemna drilled a 3.
The Eagles promptly put together a 7-0 run to cut the lead to one point, but 3s by Dakota Kemna and Coltin Green stopped the bleeding and the Hornets led 26-19 at intermission.
"All the credit to them," Thomas said. "They were taking shots they wanted and they had multiple guys step up. It wasn't like it was just one guy hitting shots."
But the state's third-ranked team has gotten used to things like that this season.
"All year long, we've been taking people's best shots," Thomas said. "We know that's coming. One of our keys to win is that they're going to have a run, we're going to have a run. Who's going to handle the run better?"
The Eagles' third-quarter run ended up being the difference.
"It's hard to say what happened," Tenholder said. "I don't feel like our guys got complacent or gave up, things just didn't go our way.
"Give Jamestown credit, it shows their leadership and shows they've been there. That's where their senior leadership comes in, guys staying together. They've won a lot of games over their years."
Each team had one player reach double figures in scoring, as Barbour led all players with 18 points. Ross Struemph had 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds to pace St. Elizabeth.
The Hornets, who beat Glasgow 51-43 in the semifinals behind 20 points from Dakota Kemna and 18 from Struemph, end the season with a record of 15-12.
Jamestown improves to 26-2 and will play in the state sectional round at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at Sturgeon High School. The Eagles will play Chamois (19-9), a team Jamestown beat 47-39 on Nov. 30 in the semifinal round of the Tipton Tournament and 49-37 in a regular-season meeting Feb. 7.
"We've played Chamois twice this year and beat them twice, but throw all that out the door right now," Thomas said. "We're 0-0 right now."