Up by 15 points at halftime Tuesday, things looked good for the South Callaway Lady Bulldogs.
But there were potential problems bubbling below the surface. And they came to fruition in the final two quarters as the Owensville Dutchgirls rallied for a 54-44 victory against the Lady Bulldogs in the Capital City Shootout at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"We rely so much on our guard play and to get into foul trouble and then have one of them foul out so early, it was the straw that broke the camel's back," South Callaway coach Darren Humphrey said.
Adrian Mann had a great first half for South Callaway, totaling 12 points as the Lady Bulldogs vaulted to a 33-18 advantage heading into intermission.
But the junior had gotten into foul trouble and spent much of the early third quarter on the bench.
Without Mann, South Callaway had problems scoring. The Lady Bulldogs got the first basket of the second half, but followed that with six turnovers in the next three minutes as the Dutchgirls cut their deficit to 35-31 midway through the third quarter.
"We didn't play well, we didn't pass the ball well," Humphrey said.
At that point, Mann came back into the game with four fouls and immediately hit a layup to push South Callaway's advantage back to six. But less than 30 seconds later, Mann was whistled for her fifth and final foul.
"We started backpedalling and we needed a little burst of energy," Humphrey said. "That last foul came on a little bit of an afterthought, she probably shouldn't have done it. It was a weak foul."
South Callaway led 43-40 heading into the fourth quarter. But the Lady Bulldogs managed to score just one point in the final eight minutes as the Dutchgirls sprinted away with the victory.
"We couldn't get into our offensive flow without (Mann)," Humphrey said. "We burned our timeouts, we tried to get everybody settled down. But when everybody is that shook and you run out of timeouts, there's not much you can do.
"We just didn't handle the adversity very well. That's the long and the short of it."
Breanna Diestelkamp had a great game for Owensville. The sophomore, selected as the game's MVP, led Owensville's charge by scoring 21 of her game-high 30 points in the second half.
Savannah Ellis added 10 points for Owensville (2-5).
"Owensville is a good team, there's no doubt about that," Humphrey said. "But in all honesty, we just didn't rise to the occasion when we had to do it."
South Callaway (6-2) is back in action Friday against Father Tolton in the MRMC Shootout in Moberly.
Game time is 5 p.m.