They had to sweat for a while, but the Pacific Lady Indians reached the championship game of the Seckman Girls Basketball Holiday Classic Thursday in Imperial.
The Lady Indians (6-3) rallied in the final quarter to defeat fifth-seeded Fox, 38-30.
“Fox has gotten a whole lot better,” said Pacific Head Coach Josh Spuhl.
Pacific faced Lindbergh Friday afternoon for the title, a rematch of the 2003, 2004 and 2009 tournament championship games.
Lindbergh advanced with a 46-40 win over Seckman, setting up an all-Fox C-6 district third-place game between Seckman and Fox. The consolation championship ended up being Northwest against Mehlville while Hillsboro and Festus.
Fox Game
Exploding for nearly half of its points in the fourth quarter, the Lady Indians were able to blow open a tight game against fifth-seeded Fox (6-3).
Leading 22-21 after three quarters, Pacific outscored the Lady Warriors by a 16-9 margin in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Pacific took an 11-7 lead after one quarter. The Lady Indians were up 18-16 at the intermission.
Fox, which upset fourth-seeded Northwest in the opening round, 53-46, tried to pull off another unexpected win, but Pacific was able to pull away.
Down the stretch, the Lady Indians outscored Fox 8-1 to seal the victory.
Junior Ashley Hill reached double digits in scoring for the second game in a row, scoring half of Pacific’s points with 19 in the game.
Senior Lizzy Almo also hit double digits in scoring with 10 points.
Nikki Fleishman, a senior, led Fox with 10 points. She also had four rebounds and two assists.
Kelsey Brodbeck netted seven points with two rebounds and a steal. Selma Fific scored six points with seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Erin Birschbach ended with five points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists.
Ashley Ellis scored two points with one rebound.
Devan Smith pulled down three rebounds with an assist. Claudia Gallo secured one rebound.
Fox fell in the third-place game to host Seckman, 46-44.
