Lady Hornets top Lady Pintos in California Tournament opener

The Fulton Lady Hornets will get an opportunity to avenge their only two losses of the season.

The Lady Hornets - seeded fourth in the 91st-annual California Tournament - dispatched the No. 5 California Lady Pintos 62-56 in first-round play on Monday.

Fulton (8-2) will play the state-ranked, top-seeded Boonville Lady Pirates in the semifinal matchup at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Lady Pirates - ranked No. 3 in the MBCA/MOsports.com Class 3 poll - received a first-round bye. They defeated the Lady Hornets 53-46 on Dec. 16 in Fulton and prevailed 52-42 on Jan. 5 in Boonville.

"We're really excited; hopefully the third time is the charm," Lady Hornets assistant coach Ashley Windmiller said. "We have to play four quarters and if we can play four quarters, especially against Boonville, we can stick with them."

Fulton jumped ahead 18-13 in the first quarter. The Lady Hornets padded their advantage with a 17-7 spurt in the second quarter to grab a 35-20 halftime lead.

"Tonight, we went into halftime and tried not to talk about the third quarter stigma we've had and we tried to go out there and do the same thing we had been doing," said Windmiller, filling in for head coach TJ Quick for this game.

Fulton maintained the momentum by outscoring the Lady Pintos 14-9 in the third.

Junior guard Sloane Totta guided the Lady Hornets with a game-high 29 points, 22 of which came in the first half. Junior forward NaShayla Brandt finished with 11 points.

Freshman guard Elizabeth Lutz totaled 21 points to lead the Lady Pintos, while senior guard Kamryn Koetting scored 11.