The Capital City Lady Cavaliers saved their best minute of basketball for the final minute Monday night.
The Warrensburg Lady Tigers trailed the Lady Cavaliers by one point with 1:02 to play, but Capital City went on a 6-0 run to finish the game, pulling out a 53-46 victory at Capital City High School.
Monday’s win snaps a seven-game losing skid for the Lady Cavaliers.
“We’ve been talking about adversity, and over the three years I’ve been here, when something doesn’t go our way, we’ve gone the other way, pouted and put our heads down,” Capital City coach Ashley Agee said.
“We saw some success (last week) against Battle, and they all saw what making one more play does, what picking each other up does.”
Warrensburg’s Grace Hill scored a putback off her own miss with 1:02 to play, pulling Warrensburg within one point of the lead at 47-46.
Agee called her team’s final timeout with :48.4 remaining to avoid a turnover near mid-court.
“The discussion was we don’t need anything but to hang onto the ball,” she said. “They’ve got to foul us, the ball’s in our court.”
Capital City maintained possession of the ball until Warrensburg committed its seventh team foul with :39.9 to play, sending the Lady Cavaliers to the free-throw line for a 1-and-1.
Addison Jones, who had not scored in the first 31 minutes for Capital City, went to the free-throw line. She made the first attempt, earning the bonus attempt, and converted the second free throw to give the Lady Cavaliers a three-point lead.
“She had a chance to win it against Battle with a 1-and-1, and she missed it,” Agee said of Jones. “She redeemed herself tonight.”
Warrensburg went for the tie on its next possession, but Maleah Myers’ deep 3-point attempt from the top of the key with 27 seconds left hit off the front of the rim and was rebounded by Jones.
The Lady Tigers used a full-court press to try and force a turnover, but Capital City was able to push the ball to mid-court. Rylea Sanning passed the ball ahead to Jada Anderson, who was wide open and scored an easy layup with 15 seconds left to seal the win for the Lady Cavaliers.
“The girls all did great tonight,” Agee said. “They just played together and they know what it feels like to be together and motivate each other.
“If they continue to do that, they’re going to succeed a lot more than we have been.”
Warrensburg missed another 3-point attempt -- the Lady Tigers shot 0-of-10 from 3-point range -- and Natalie Allison was fouled and made both free throws with :01.2 remaining to give Capital City a seven-point victory.
It was Allison’s first game back since suffering an injury in a Dec. 20 game against Eldon. She came off the bench and scored seven points, making the game’s only 3-pointer.
“She’s working to get back in the routine to run the offense,” Agee said.
Warrensburg’s 2-3 zone defense made it difficult for Capital City to get its offense going early, but the Lady Cavaliers were tied with the Lady Tigers at 9 by the end of the first quarter.
“Girls basketball is a game of matchups,” Agee said. “They were a little bit bigger than us and we were having trouble getting the ball down to our short corner.”
Anderson, who scored a team-high 12 points for Capital City, scored on a drive down the left side of the lane in the closing seconds of the second quarter to give the Lady Cavaliers a 21-20 lead at halftime.
Danijah Fluellen came off the bench to score 11 points before fouling out with 6:58 left in the fourth quarter.
“She worked hard and she stepped up,” Agee said.
Aslyn Marshall added nine points, making a pair of clutch shots from the elbow in the fourth quarter.
“They were leaving that left elbow open almost all night and Aslyn Marshall got two nice shot from there,” Agee said.
Capital City was able to overcome a sluggish start to the fourth quarter, committing four turnovers in the first 2:28.
“We have to take care of the ball,” said Agee, whose team committed 21 turnovers in the win. “You get the stop, you do a great thing and then you shoot yourself in the foot.”
Warrensburg (7-5) -- which is coached by Melvin Myers, a former Jefferson City girls basketball assistant coach -- was led by Hill, who had a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds. Kimberly Maxwell finished with 14 points.
Capital City (3-12) plays Thursday at Rock Bridge, then has just one game in the following two-and-a-half weeks.
“We’ll get a little bit of a break, which is nice because we haven’t had a chance to work on anything or fix anything in practice,” Agee said. “There are some things we would like to implement that we know our kids can do, but we haven’t had time to officially work on.”
Capital City swept Monday’s tripleheader. The Lady Cavaliers started the night with a 47-19 win in the freshman game, then the JV won 40-29 against Warrensburg.