The No. 6 seed Lady Bulldogs were outscored by the No. 3 Lady Bearcats 18-10 in the fourth quarter of Monday night's 44-40 first-round loss at the South Callaway Invitational Tournament.
South Callaway (7-4) carried a 25-12 advantage into halftime, but Hermann controlled the second half by outscoring the Lady Bulldogs 32-15.
Sophomore forward Konnor Arrowood tallied a game-high 20 points as the only player to reach double figures for South Callaway, which has now lost two straight after winning five in a row.
"In the second half we were just kind of stagnant," Lady Bulldogs head coach Darren Humphrey said. "They played pretty good defense ... and that took us out of the ballgame and swung the momentum for them."
Tesla Ruediger topped the Lady Bearcats with 12 points and Cameron Hackmann contributed 10.
South Callaway will square off against No. 7 seed Montgomery County in the consolation semifinals at 7:30 tonight at the middle school. The Lady Wildcats were manhandled by No. 2 seed New Bloomfield 54-29 in first-round action Monday night.
The Lady Bulldogs previously won at Montgomery County 52-45 on Dec. 8.
"The girls have an idea of what it'll take to beat them," Humphrey said. "It's one of those things where this loss (Monday night) is going to weigh on their minds as well.
"It just depends on if we can take this loss and learn from it."