The Eugene Lady Eagles fought to get back in it.
The Tipton Lady Cardinals fought them off to win it.
The Lady Cardinals put together an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to defeat the Lady Eagles 74-60 in Class 2 sectional action at Rackers Fieldhouse.
"I thought we'd done enough things wrong and bad in a row, we had the right people to settle down and do things right again," Tipton coach Jason Culpepper said. "It just took some player leadership out there to settle things down and get going again."
Eugene had things going its way for a stretch. The Lady Eagles trailed by 17 before scoring the final four points of the third quarter to cut their deficit to 58-45.
The Lady Eagles then opened the fourth quarter with a 8-0 run and all of the sudden, it was a ballgame at 58-53 with a little more than six minutes remaining. The five-point deficit was as close as Eugene had been since it was 13-8 midway through the first quarter.
But senior Abby Backes ended Tipton's drought with a drive and short jumper to make it 60-53. After Kayla Bond of Eugene hit two free throws, Briar Cox of Tipton answered with a basket with 3:30 to play.
Eugene failed to score on its its possession, then Alexa Jurgensmeyer drilled a 3-pointer with 2:40 remaining to push Tipton's lead back to 10 at 65-55.
"We had a chance, but we missed a couple of shots, they hit a big one and we never recovered," Eugene coach Megan Brinkmann said.
Jurgensmeyer's shot proved to be the dagger.
"I agree, I felt pretty confident after that," Culpepper said.
Eugene, concentrating early on getting the ball inside to Alexis Angerer, led 8-7 with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
At 6-foot, Angerer had a decided height advantage and that was a concern for the Lady Cardinals.
"As much size as they have inside, I was concerned if they got an early lead and we got in early foul trouble, it would be tough to play the second and third quarters," Culpepper said.
But trailing by one, Tipton rattled off the next 13 points to take a 20-8 advantage. With Backes hitting three 3-pointers and totaling 11 points, the Lady Cardinals led 25-13 after one quarter.
"She came out and said she was here, good luck," Culpepper said.
Tipton maintained that double digit lead through the next two quarters, leading 39-27 at the half and taking that 58-43 lead into the final eight minutes.
"We kept battling to hang around," Brinkmann said.
But the Lady Eagles were a little frustrated they were down by double-digits for much of the game.
"They're athletic, they hit some shots," Brinkmann said. "Props to them for that. But we had some defensive breakdowns that were uncharacteristic and they capitalized on them."
Angerer finished with 22 points to lead Eugene (21-4).
"We knew she would be a mismatch for them," Brinkmann said. "As a senior, she really stepped up."
Jodi Polly, another senior, chipped in with 10 points while pulling down a game-high eight rebounds for the Lady Eagles.
Backes scored a game-high 30 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Tipton. Jurgensmeyer added 14 points, while Cox totaled 11.
With the win, Tipton (24-5) advances to Saturday afternoon's quarterfinal against Paris (17-11) at Moberly Area Community College. Paris defeated Scotland County 47-37 in its sectional Wednesday night.
Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday.
It's the second trip to the quarterfinals in three years for the Tipton seniors.
"Everybody that is pretty good has the goal to get to the Final Four, but this team has taken this season one game at a time," Culpepper said. "They've bought into that each game is the biggest game, each minute of each game is the biggest minute.
"I couldn't be prouder of the way they've done that."
The Class 2 Final Four is scheduled for March 13-14 in Springfield.