The North Callaway Ladybirds are entering district play on the right kind of wave.
The Ladybirds closed out the regular season with its ninth straight win, a 47-35 Eastern Missouri Conference triumph over the Bowling Green Lady Bobcats on Thursday.
Ahead 11-7 after a quarter, North Callaway pounced on the Lady Bobcats with a 13-5 second-quarter showing. The Ladybirds took a 24-12 lead into halftime, then secured the victory despite a 23-all scoring knot with Bowling Green in the second half.
Senior guard Elaine Brinker logged 12 points, seven assists and seven steals for North Callaway (18-7, 9-1 EMO). Junior guard Madison Ausfahl scored 10 points and pulled in five rebounds, while freshman guard Kyla Bertschinger had 10 points and six steals.
"It was a good win to end the season against a good team," Ladybirds head coach Matt Miller said. "Defense, again, came through for four quarters and we scored enough to win."
Kara Meyer and Harlie Linsay each notched 10 points for the Lady Bobcats.
North Callaway finished its junior varsity campaign with a 27-18 loss. Katerina Roesner scored a team-high seven points for the Ladybirds (12-5).
North Callaway nearly pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter of its 60-41 win at state-ranked Tipton on Wednesday night.
The Ladybirds limited the Lady Cardinals - ranked No. 3 in Class 2 - to three free throws in the final 8 minutes to hand them their first loss of the season.
"I told the girls that they had nothing to lose against a quality, quality team, to go out and have fun, and to use the game to prepare us to get better for district play," Miller said.
"We've been locked in on defense for about a month now; we contested shots, we rotated well and we got a lot of deflections," Miller said. "Once we started getting some steals, we turned them into transition baskets."
North Callaway sprinted out to a 19-8 lead after a quarter then took a 40-27 cushion into halftime.
"Our mindset was to attack and drive off the dribble with our guards," Miller said. "When that wasn't working, we threw the ball into our posts and got some solid production."
Brinker produced 18 points, eight steals, seven assists and six rebounds. Bertschinger registered 13 of her 15 points in the first 11 minutes of play, while Ausfahl added nine.
Paige Baker and Alyson Brant scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, for Tipton (24-1).
The Ladybirds prevailed 26-17 in the junior varsity game. Freshman Nicole Emmons led the way with nine points.
North Callaway - seeded third in the Class 3, District 8 tournament - play No. 6 Hermann at 8:30 p.m. Monday in Mokane. The Ladybirds bowed to the Lady Bearcats 37-27 in their season opener on Nov. 24 in Kingdom City.
"We want to use this week with three quality wins and take that advantage into districts," Miller said.