The first quarter resembled a layup drill.
The Jefferson City Lady Jays finished 8-of-10 from the field in the opening eight minutes Thursday night, with seven of those baskets coming in the paint, on their way to a 67-34 victory against the Hickman Kewpies at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Sarah Linthacum finished with 10 points in the first quarter for the Lady Jays, while Kara Daly had four as Jefferson City used a series of strong entry passes to score easy baskets.
"We were able to go inside to Sarah and Kara to get us going," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said.
It was the regular-season finale for the Lady Jays, who will take a 21-3 record and the top seed into next week's Class 5 District 9 Tournament at Battle High School in Columbia.
"This is what we've been working toward all season," Conway said. "Now it's just a matter of taking it one game at a time."
Jefferson City led 17-5 after the first quarter. After giving up the opening basket in the second quarter, the Lady Jays went on a 13-0 run and led 34-9 at halftime.
"We wanted to get back to doing a better job of locking down on defense and then try to push the issue a little bit," Conway said.
The Lady Jays led by as many as 37 points in the third quarter, that coming after a Hannah Linthacum basket made it 52-15 with 1:40 on the clock. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Sakkyra King gave Jefferson City a 57-21 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
"Our energy was good all game," Conway said.
Jefferson City had just two turnovers through the first three quarters.
"They guarded us hard, so that's a positive," Conway said. "We wanted to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and making better decisions with it and we did that."
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock as Jefferson City posted its ninth win of the season by 30 or more points.
Maci Kutcha and Detriann'a Jamison had nine points each to lead Hickman (9-15).
Sarah Linthacum finished 11-of-11 from the field to score a game-high 22 points. Daly added 16 points while pulling down a game-high six rebounds.
Jefferson City, ranked No. 2 in Class 5 play, will face either Sedalia Smith-Cotton or Battle in the district semifinals at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Fourth-seeded Smith-Cotton and fifth-seeded Battle will meet in a play-in game at 6 p.m. Monday.
"We'll be preparing for both of them," Conway said.
Hickman is the No. 3 seed and will face second-seeded Rock Bridge in Tuesday's second semifinal at 7:30 p.m.
The district title game is scheduled for Friday, March 6, starting at 6 p.m.
In Thursday night's JV game, Hickman defeated Jefferson City 47-27. Emmarie Graham had 16 points for the Lady Jays.