Heading into the final eight minutes, the margin had quickly ballooned to 14 points, with the T-Town girls on top, 41-27.

The scoring surge didn’t stop there, however. On three straight trips – two following even two more turnovers by Paris – Izzy Hardiek got position inside the lane, received a good entry pass and knocked down all three shots. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, it was a 20-point spread, 47-27.

“The girls played really hard,” Thompson noted. “They took care of the ball, played very strong defense and knocked down shots. When we get the ball inside and score like that, other teams don’t know what to do. We just haven’t done it that much this season. You could see that Paris got flustered. That’s what happens when you make shots.”

After making just 9-of-28 shots (32 percent) in the first half, the Lady Shoes were 15-of-27 (56 percent) in the final 16 minutes. Paris wasn’t able to get any closer than 17 points the rest of the way, while THS led by as many as 27 points before settling for the impressive 25-point victory.

The first half wasn’t as impressive, although the Lady Shoes never trailed. Schumacher opened the game with back-to-back scores and by the end of the first period the hosts owned a 12-3 advantage.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Coombes helped keep Paris close in the second quarter. A short jumper and a three-pointer got the Lady Tigers within 12-9. After T-Town stretched the lead back to eight, Coombes scored the final bucket of the half to trim the margin to 21-15 at intermission.

“I didn’t think we played very tough that first half,” Thompson said. “They took the ball away from us several times. But we were tougher in the second half and we played with much more intensity.”

Paris was able to get within one point on two different occasions in the third period. Lexie Niebrugge connected from long range and Schumacher made a pair of free throws to make it a six-point cushion, but Trinity Tingley drilled a three-pointer for the Lady Tigers to make 30-27.

That’s when the Lady Shoes went on their game-changing run and Paris failed to score again for a little over five minutes.

Teutopolis had a balanced scoring attack, placing four girls in double figures. Hardiek led the way with 16 points, while Lexie Niebrugge scored 14 and both Schumacher and Kaylee Niebrugge added 13. Schumacher finished with a double-double after pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds and helping the Lady Shoes to a big 29-16 advantage on the board.

T-Town shot 44 percent overall, connecting on 24-of-55 shots. They were 4-for-13 from behind the arc and 13-of-26 from the foul line. They turned the ball over 16 times and forced Paris into 18 turnovers.

It was the final game for Lexie Niebrugge, the only senior on this year’s THS squad.

“And she played like a senior today,” Thompson noted. “In that second half, she wanted the ball; she wanted to run the club. And she made some great decisions. She realized this was the last time she would play on this floor.

“She will be hard to replace,” Thompson added. “But the girls now know what they need to work on this summer. Lexie averages about 17 points a game and we’ll have to find a way to replace those. We’re going to miss her.”

The Lady Shoes finished the season with a 15-5 record.