MONTGOMERY CITY - The No. 2 seed North Callaway Ladybirds wiped out a 17-4 first-quarter deficit to overpower the No. 3 Bowling Green Lady Bobcats in the semifinals of the Class 3, District 7 Tournament on Wednesday night.
North Callaway (19-8) will now meet top-seeded Lutheran St. Charles for the District 7 championship at 6 p.m. Friday. The Lady Cougars (18-8) reached the title game by throttling No. 4 seed Montgomery County 59-37 in Wednesday night's other semifinal.
"My girls never give up," Ladybirds head coach Morgan Beamer said. "When we practice, we do a lot of tough drills. After the first quarter I told them they had two options - they could either surrender and let (Bowling Green) take the game, or step up and make something happen.
"They handled a tough situation."
North Callaway battled back in the second quarter, outscoring the Lady Bobcats 15-4 to pull within 21-19 at the break. The Ladybirds then outscored Bowling Green 23-14 in the third quarter to craft a 42-35 advantage and clinched the victory by outscoring the Lady Bobcats 15-7 over the final 8 minutes.
Sophomore guard Kenzie Ausfahl produced 15 points to guide four players in double figures for North Callaway, which split its two matchups with Bowling Green during the regular season. Junior guard Nicole Emmons added a career-high 14 points, junior forward Allie Schlueter had 13 and junior guard Kyla Bertschinger finished with 10.
Senior forward Sam Schaefer collected a team-high 10 rebounds for the Ladybirds.
Katelynn Charlton answered with a game-high 19 points for the Lady Bobcats (18-9).