Rios was also instrumental in getting the Lady Bulldogs off to a good start.

With the score tied 4-4, her jumper at the 4:18 mark put SAHS ahead to stay. She pumped in 11 points in the first eight minutes and the Lady Bulldogs built a 15-6 lead.

“She really showed some senior leadership tonight,” the coach – and also Ady’s father – noted. “She helped get us started tonight and then those jumpers in the fourth quarter were huge. We really need those. I’m proud of how she stepped up and competed.”

Haslett, after being held scoreless in the first period, started to come alive in the second quarter. The Lady Bulldogs had leads of eight and nine points, but Haslett knocked down a three-pointer, converted a turnover into a bucket and scored nine points. At halftime, BSE only trailed by six, 22-16.

“Our defense against her was a little unorthodox,” Rios admitted. “We wanted to keep her from driving inside and getting those short jumpers. We put Addi (Lauritzen) on her. Addi is quick, long and one of our better defenders. She found a way to score some points tonight, but we made her work for them.”

Haslett opened the second half with a basket from long range to narrow the gap to three points. But for the rest of the third period, the lead fluctuated between three and eight points. Heading into the final eight minutes, St. Anthony was still on top by five, 34-29.

That’s when Rios – who didn’t score a point in the middle two quarters – came alive again and helped the Lady Bulldogs take control.

After the game, Coach Rios’ first words were, “We made it harder than it needed to be.”

He was referring to the 24 turnovers his team committed.

“A lot of those were in transition,” he noted. “We just kept throwing the ball away. We have got to do a better job than that when we face good teams like we did tonight. To hold that team to 40 points was a heckuva job by our defense. Had we cut our turnovers in half, we probably win this game by 12 or 14 points.”

Haslett, who was named to the all-tournament team, finished with a game-high 29 points. She scored 20 of those in the second half.

“She played today like an MVP,” Rios said. “She and Nancy (Ruholl) are two of the best players in our league. They both play hard at both ends of the floor and they both had great tournaments.”

The Lady Bombers, who dipped to 20-3 overall, didn’t shoot well. They connected on just 12-of-42 attempts, a cool 29 percent. They were 7-for-17 from three-point range and 13-for-14 at the foul line. They were guilty of 21 turnovers.

BSE was playing without one of its starters. Presley Williams sustained an injury earlier in the tournament and was unable to compete.

Rios led St. Anthony with 21 points, while Ruholl added 16.

The Lady Bulldogs made 18-of-42 shots overall, a 43 percent clip. They were 2-for-14 from behind the arc and 11-of-16 at the line. They held a 21-16 rebounding advantage, with Nuxoll pulling down a game-high seven.

Rios, Ruholl and Nuxoll were each named to the all-tourney team. Ruholl was named the Most Valuable Player.

The Lady Bulldogs improved to 18-4 on the season. They will be back in action Monday night, traveling to South Central for an NTC matchup.