MOBERLY - The Tipton Lady Cardinals have been knocking on the door of the Class 2 Final Four in recent seasons.
This season, they're in.
The Lady Cardinals advanced to Final Four for the first time in program history with a 57-41 victory Saturday afternoon against the Paris Lady Coyotes at Moberly Area Community College.
"Three of the four times we've won a district championship, I felt like we were good enough to get there," Tipton coach Jason Culpepper said. "I tell the girls every year, every day, you don't know what might happen. The ball might not fall, the other team might make shots they don't normally hit.
"So don't leave it to chance. Just play every possession like it is the last one. We came out with that mentality on defense, they had to earn everything that they got. The girls did tremendous."
With the win, unranked Tipton (25-5) advances to take on fifth-ranked Blue Eye (27-4) in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Hammons Student Center in Springfield. Blue Eye defeated Mansfield 60-46 in its quarterfinal Saturday.
"We've got an extra week to play and I couldn't be happier," Tipton senior guard Abby Backes said.
The Lady Cardinals dominated play in the first quarter, jumping out to a 9-0 lead, capped by a 3-pointer by Kiley Bailey. Tipton locked down on defense during that run as Paris went 0-of-2 from the field with three turnovers on its first five possessions.
After Nicole Skinner got the Lady Coyotes on the board with a pair of free throws, Tipton rattled off the next seven points to take a 16-2 lead with 2:40 to go in the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Myra Claas with :45 left gave the Lady Cardinals a 22-3 lead after one quarter.
Claas had 10 of her 23 points in the quarter.
"She's awesome, she carried the load for us on offense," Culpepper said. "She stepped up and played big, not like a freshman at all."
Tipton opened the second quarter with an 8-2 run to take a its biggest lead of the contest at 30-5. Paris got its first basket of the game midway through the quarter and was able to cut the deficit to 32-17 at intermission. The Lady Coyotes were 8-of-8 at the free-throw line in the second quarter.
"We gave them too many free throws to give them confidence," Culpepper said.
Tipton scored just two points in the last 4:24 of the quarter.
"We got a little stagnant on defense, we let our offense dictate our defense instead of the other way around," Culpepper said. "In the first quarter, our defense was great. It was leading to buckets and giving us confidence.
"But when we missed a few shots, it got to us on defense."
Victoria Hamilton, a 6-foot-6 senior, had six of the second-quarter free throws for Paris. She definitely provided a challenge for the much shorter Lady Cardinals.
"I never thought I would coach against a 6-foot-6 girl who is as talented as she is," Culpepper said. "Usually you think uncoordinated who won't help very much.
"But she's very good."
Those free throws were the only points in the half for the SIU-Edwardsville recruit as Hamilton was 0-of-3 from the field.
"We were focused on giving help defense to make it difficult for them to get her the ball," Culpepper said. "We wanted to go after the ball in the air, don't let her catch it clean. Because when she does that, there's nothing we can do, she either makes her shot or she misses it. We can't get that high to stop her."
Hamilton made her presence felt in the third quarter, scoring 13 points. Her layup with :50 left, followed by a free throw with :27.3 remaining, pulled Paris to within six at 41-35. That was as close as the Lady Coyotes had been since the opening minute of the game.
But Claas then hit her biggest shot of the game, drilling a 3-pointer with :01 left to push Tipton's lead to 44-35 heading to the fourth quarter.
Tipton's defense reasserted itself in the fourth quarter, holding Paris to just four points in the first six-plus minutes. The final 16-point margin matched the biggest of the quarter.
Hamilton joined Claas with 23 points, while pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds. Skinner added nine for Paris (17-12), which had just four players score in the game.
Alexa Jurgensmeyer added 13 points, including seven in the first quarter, for Tipton. Backes chipped in with 10.
Eighth-ranked Oran (25-5) and second-ranked East Buchanan (27-3) will meet in the other semifinal at 2:40 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, the championship game is scheduled for 6:20 p.m., with the third-place game set for 11 a.m.