Down by 35 points, it was a first half to forget.
So the Capital City Lady Cavaliers did just that.
"We showed some energy and got after it a little bit more in the second half," Capital City coach Ryan Madison said after the Lady Cavaliers closed the regular season with a 54-20 loss Tuesday night to the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Lady Tigers.
"Sometimes, it's tough to get kids to do that when you're down like we were."
It was rough from the start as Capital City turned it over on five of its first six possessions.
"I didn't do a good job of getting them ready and because of that, we didn't play very well," Madison said. "(Smith-Cotton) is a physical, athletic team and we didn't match their intensity at the beginning."
The seventh possession was capped by a putback by Kyla James and the Lady Cavaliers only trailed 5-2.
It went downhill from the there until halftime. Smith-Cotton closed the opening quarter on an 11-0 run, then started the second with a matching 11-0 spurt to lead 27-2.
"We missed some open shots, if those fall, it could have been a different game or we would have at least been in it a little bit more," Madison said.
Brooklynn Greene ended Capital City's scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 3:15 to go before halftime. Smith-Cotton then scored 13 unanswered points to take a 40-5 advantage into intermission.
"Defensively, we felt like we didn't give a very good effort," Madison said.
Offensively, the Lady Cavaliers finished 2-of-16 from the field in the first half with 17 turnovers.
"We turned it over more in the first half than we have in a long time," Madison said.
The Lady Tigers dialed down the defensive pressure at the start of the third quarter and the Lady Cavaliers got into a better rhythm on offense. Capital City outscored Smith-Cotton 13-10 in the quarter and trailed 50-18.
"We moved the ball better and hit a couple of shots," Madison said. "When you do that, things always look better."
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
Haley Wiskur scored a game-high 22 points for Sedalia Smith-Cotton (11-12), including 16 in the first half. Sophie Martin added 13 points, all in the second quarter, to go along 10 rebounds.
Greene had eight points to pace Capital City (7-17).
Capital City will open its first basketball postseason Saturday as the host school for the Class 4 District 10 Tournament. The Lady Cavaliers are the No. 6 seed and will open against the third-seeded Helias Lady Crusaders (12-11) in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Game time is 2 p.m.
"Helias is a good team that's played a ridiculous schedule," Madison said. "We just want to go out and give it our best effort because it's win or go home."
The Lady Cavaliers have been doing some winning lately, going 6-6 in their last 12 games and finishing with a winning record at home.
"I know we didn't play very well tonight, but we've been playing better the last few weeks," Madison said. "The kids started to get it, they bought in and got better. We just grew up a little bit."
In Tuesday's JV game, Capital City dropped a 21-17 decision to Smith-Cotton. Ebonee Hawkins had eight points for Capital City.