The Lady Shoes looked good early in the game. Lexie Niebrugge opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, but that was her only made field goal of the contest. Karsyn Mette and Izzy Hardiek both had three points, helping THS build an 11-4 lead. It was 11-6 after eight minutes of play.

Ciara Roepke connected a shot from behind the arc to open a 14-6 lead 20 seconds into the second period. But Rigdon responded with a three and Isaf added a short jumper to close the gap to three. It was still a three-point game at halftime with THS on top 19-16.

T-Town didn’t shoot well in the first half and it got worse after intermission. The Lady Shoes made only 3-of-19 shots in the final two quarters and overtime and scored just 16 points.

“When your top three scorers go 5-for-30 shooting, you’re going to struggle,” Thompson noted. “Plus, we had 21 turnovers and that’s way too many. But I thought we played pretty well defensively, especially when we communicated.”

And yet, the Lady Shoes had their chances to still win the game.

It was tied 24-24 heading into the final eight minutes. The lead changed hands six times during the fourth quarter. Niebrugge hit 5-of-6 from the foul line, Olivia Niemerg hit a jumper from the lane with 2:39 to go to put THS on top 31-30.

Krabel scored on a three-point play at the 1:25 mark and Niemerg hit another jumper to tie the game at 33-33 with 1:02 left. Paris held for a final shot, but was unable to score, setting the stage for the four-minute overtime.

Isaf and Rigdon led all scorers with 17 and 15 points respectively.

Niebrugge was the only Lady Shoe to reach double figures, finishing with 13 – 10 of those from the free throw line. Roepke and niemerg both scored 5 points. Niemerg also had seven rebounds. Both Niebrugge and Niemerg were named to the all-tournament team.

The Lady Shoes made only 9-of-38 shots, an icy 24 percent. They were 3-of-16 from three-point range and 14-of-18 at the foul line.

T-Town, now 11-3 on the season, finished runner-up in the Charleston tournament for the second year in a row. They will face this same Lady Tigers team, now 17-0, Thursday night in Paris.

“If our girls put their game together, we can beat anyone,” Thompson noted. “If not, it’s going to be a long January. We have a tough schedule ahead. We’re going to face Flora, Mt. Carmel, Civic Memorial and we’re going to be in the Highland Tournament, which is always tough. And we go to Paris Thursday night.

“We simply have to get better, but I think we will,” Thompson added.