BROSELEY -- New Madrid County Central's unbeaten start to its season came to a grinding halt in the quarterfinals of the Lady Royals Christmas Classic on Tuesday.
The Eagles were held to a season-low point total in shooting 29.8 percent from the field and host Twin Rivers rebounded enough to secure a 58-43 win.
"We knew they were going to play fast, we knew we wanted to play fast too," Royals coach Kelly Westerfield said. "We didn't necessarily want to slow them down, we wanted to play fast but stronger, so that was our goal."
The Royals (6-4) pulled away with a 16-5 run to end the third quarter as Central managed just two third-quarter field goals.
The Eagles (9-1) came in averaging 63.7 points and were coming off a 70-47 first-round win over Charleston.
"We didn't play a real composed game tonight," Central coach B.J. Stone said. "I felt like when we did actually pass the ball and work it around we got decent shots.
"Several times down there we just throw up the quickest shot we'd get or take a shot from somewhere we didn't look comfortable at many times."
Katelyn South scored 16 of her game-high 28 points for Twin Rivers in the second half. Katie Baxter added 11 points and eight rebounds while Brooke Blume led with 12 rebounds to go with eight points.
Tylei Wofford-Byrd had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds while Yanni Ruff led with 14 points, all coming in the opening 13 minutes.
The Royals held a plus-7 advantage on rebounds and only gave up four second-chance points.
"We do have some length to us but at times we are smaller than we need to be," Stone said. "That's something we've got to definitely work on, rebounding."
Twin Rivers jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start as the Eagles missed three shots from the field, two foul shots and turned it over twice in the opening 2-plus minutes.
A similar stretch came in the final four minutes of the third quarter when the Eagles didn't sink a field goal and went from trailing by five to Twin Rivers taking a 43-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
Central was able to recover early behind Ruff's 12 first-quarter points.
Twin Rivers led 15-12 at the start of the second but Mastajah Walker put the Eagles in front with six minutes left in the half. South broke an 18-all tie with a free throw and Baxter followed with a putback before Catey Hester's two foul shots.
The Royals took a 27-23 lead into halftime but Central got within a basket when Alexis Phillips scored. Twin Rivers then turned it over, but South got a steal and layin.
Midway through the third, South splashed in a 3 but Wofford-Byrd answered with one of her own.
However, it was the final field goal for the Eagles of the quarter as they missed three shots in their next possession then turned it over twice. The Royals put together a 7-1 run and later scored seven straight early in the fourth to lead 50-32.
The Eagles, who will play Doniphan in the fifth-place semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Twin Rivers advances to the final four for the first time in two years and the ninth time in 19 tournaments. The Royals face second-seeded Neelyville at 7:30 p.m. Thursday looking to reach the final for the first time since 2010.
"I've been in this tournament before where we get to this point and we lose the next two. That's not a good feeling," Westerfield said. "Our goal is to not lose the next two not matter how it happens. We want to come out with another win somewhere."