CALIFORNIA, Mo. - The St. James Lady Tigers wouldn't give up. The Helias Lady Crusaders wouldn't give in.
Helias withstood a handful of second-half surges Tuesday night by St. James to take a 46-39 victory in the opening round of the 24th Annual California Tournament.
"That's the type of team we have, we've done that a lot this year," Helias coach Alan Lepper said.
Helias never trailed in the game and led 10-4 after one quarter and 22-15 at the half.
A pair of Erin Wyrick free throws a minute into the third quarter pushed Helias' advantage to nine at 24-15 and it looked like the Lady Crusaders were on their way to an easy victory.
But the Lady Tigers weren't going to go away.
"I think we got a little lethargic," Lepper said.
St. James went on a 9-0 run during the next three-plus minutes to tie the game at 24. It was the first time the game had been tied since the opening two minutes.
A short jumper by Wyrick with 3:23 to go in the quarter gave Helias the lead back. The Lady Crusaders closed the quarter on an 8-1 spurt during the last 2:15 to take a 36-27 lead into the fourth.
Meagan Engelbrecht came up big in the quarter for Helias, hitting a short jumper and coming up with a pair of key steals that lead to layups.
"She's a kid that can give us a lot of good minutes," Lepper said. "She's definitely part of our guard rotation. Meagan just needs to get more confidence in herself because she can definitely play."
St. James opened the fourth quarter on a 10-4 spurt to cut Helias' lead to 40-37. It was 42-39 before Helias kept St. James off the scoreboard for the final two minutes.
"Luckily for us, we pulled through even though we didn't play all that well," Lepper said. "We were missing some point-blank shots, our defensive communication wasn't the best, but we came out of it with the win."
Ellie Rockers finished with a double-double for the Lady Crusaders with game-high totals of 14 points and 13 rebounds.
"It's almost like you're expecting games like that out of her," Lepper said. "She plays so hard, that's just Ellie."
Wyrick added 12 points for Helias (8-6), which has won seven of its last nine games.
Ashlyn Rinehart had 12 points to pace St. James (7-7).
Fourth-seeded Helias will face top-seeded California in the Thursday's semifinals.
"If we play like we did tonight, they're going to put 100 points on us," Lepper said. "We know they are going to be ready to play Helias."
Game time is 6 p.m.