The Helias Lady Crusaders played their style in the first half and kept it close.
The Jefferson City Lady Jays played their style in the third quarter and pulled away.
The Lady Jays turned up the speed and used a 13-0 run in a four-plus minute span to push their lead to double digits on their way to a 45-31 win Monday night against the Lady Crusaders at a packed Rackers Fieldhouse.
"We have to be able to adjust to whatever the pace is," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said.
The Lady Crusaders weren't necessarily trying to slow the game down.
"We just wanted to make sure we got good looks at the basket," Helias coach Alan Lepper said. "With their size, we needed those good looks because it was going to be tough to get a lot of offensive rebounds and second chances."
Ellie Rockers of the Lady Crusaders hit a short jumper about a minute into the third quarter to cut the Lady Jays' lead to 23-20.
And then
"We just went dead," Lepper said. "It's like we didn't want to shoot the shots that were there. We have to be ready to shoot when we get the chance against a team like Jefferson City."
Jefferson City sprang to life with its big run.
"When we started to do the things we worked on in practice for four days, we looked a lot better," Conway said. "That helped us extend our lead, unlike the first half, when they were doing the things they wanted to do and it didn't work."
The Lady Jays outscored the Lady Crusaders 14-4 in the third quarter to take a 37-22 advantage.
"We just quit doing the things that made us successful in the first two quarters," Lepper said.
Jefferson City led by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter.
"Defensively, we were pretty solid all night," Conway said.
The teams swapped points in the first quarter, which ended with Jefferson City holding a 10-9 lead. The Lady Jays led by as many as seven points in the second quarter, that coming after a Kara Daly layup on a great pass from Sarah Linthacum made it 18-11 with three minutes remaining.
Jefferson City led 23-18 at intermission.
"We were very impatient on offense, we were taking very quick shots and not making them work on defense," Conway said. "It was one or two passes, they were getting a breather on that end."
Lindsey Byers had 10 points in the first half for Helias, while Rockers had the other eight.
"For most of the year, it's been those two," Lepper said. "You just hope you can get some help from some other girls. We have girls that are capable, it's just a matter of doing it during games."
It had been 18 days since Helias last played, while the Jefferson City was coming off a 10-day break.
"I think we're both glad we finally got a game in," Conway said.
The Lady Crusaders tried to simulate game conditions as best they could for the 21/2 weeks.
"We scrimmaged a lot," Lepper said. "It's tough to go that long without playing, you can get rusty because it's just not the same speed."
Daly was 7-of-9 from the field and finished with a game-high 16 points for the Lady Jays. Hannah Nilges added 11.
"They are so big and physical," Lepper said. "There's a reason they're undefeated, it's because they're very good."
Linthacum, who battled foul trouble, and Daly both had six rebounds.
"Sarah has to learn to play through that when it happens and our bench is going to have to learn how to give us quality minutes," Conway said.
Jefferson City (16-0, ranked No. 1 in Class 5) will play Rock Bridge for the title in the Union Tournament at 4 p.m. today. The game was pushed back for more than a week due to weather.
"They are going to play a lot of different defenses just like Rock Bridge always does," Conway said. "It's going to be another quality test for us."
Byers finished with 12 points to lead Helias. Rockers added 10.
Helias (9-4, No. 5 in Class 4) will play Clever in a shootout Saturday at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar. The game, a recent addition to Helias' schedule, is slated for a 1 p.m. start.
In Monday night's JV game, Jefferson City defeated Helias 46-38. Rhakala Blackmon had 11 points for the Lady Jays, while Madi Hood totaled 13 for the Lady Crusaders.
Helias beat Jefferson City 43-15 in the freshman game. Gabriel Bax led the Lady Crusaders with 13 points. Kacey Highfill and Kennedi White had five points each for the Lady Jays.