FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. -- When the pressure started ramping up on the Twin Rivers girls basketball team, the Royals reverted to habits and what they were comfortable doing.
That often left Arcadia Valley players open and the Tigers scored 47 first-half points in an 87-64 win in the MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 semifinal Monday.
Arcadia Valley (17-10) will play Saxony Lutheran in the championship at 6 p.m. Friday. It is the fifth straight year the two will meet for the district title, albeit the first with Stan Whited coaching Arcadia Valley. Saxony Lutheran won the previous four.
"I thought when we got within 10 we might be fixing to do something, but they are such a strong team and we were in such a hole that it was hard to get out of," Twin Rivers coach Kelly Westerfield said. "We had to guard differently because they are all such a threat. We knew they could shoot well and get hot. What I saw was our girls going back to their habits and going back to the places on the floor they are used to guarding instead of finding their man.
"And then offensively, we weren't being strong enough or smart enough. Katie Baxter came out hot and scoring and I didn't see us getting the ball to her when she was open."
Down by 17 at halftime, Twin Rivers (17-11) cut the led to nine points with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
After an Arcadia Valley bucket, Baxter fouled out trying for an offensive rebound and, in the bonus, Katie Whited made both free throws.
Katelyn South answered with a quick bucket for Twin Rivers, and with more than 3 minutes to play, the Tigers started burning the clock.
Shortly thereafter, Brooke Blume was called for an intentional foul, her fifth foul, and she joined Baxter on the bench.
"I didn't take them out and leave them on the bench. That was a chance I was willing to take. They are our seniors, they have been in the big games before. I didn't want to go out with them sitting on the bench thinking what would have happened, so we just put it all out there," Westerfield said.
The intentional foul free throws put the Tigers up by 15, and then Josie Landrum scored a three-point play on the following possession as the clock ticked past the three-minute mark.
The Royals kept up the intensity but stopped fouling as the seconds ticked to zero.
South led the Lady Royals with 30 points, 19 coming in the second half.
"Katelyn South had 30 points and I think I griped at her the whole time," Westerfield said.
Added Whited, "We couldn't hardly stop her. We put our quickest girl, Katie (Whited), on her but they kept screening for her. We were trying to get help the whole game for her. Whichever direction South went, we tried to get secondary help for her."
South went into the game tied with Tori Cole for second all-time in Twin Rivers career scoring. South, who is signed to play at Three Rivers College next year, finished her career with 1,662 points.
She also finished with 419 rebounds, 276 steals and 162 assists. She was a career 40.3 percent shooter, made 32.5 percent of her 3-pointers and 70.3 percent of her free throws.
Baxter had 12 points, all in the first half, while Blume and Catey Hester each and 10.
The loss was the final game for South and fellow seniors Baxter, Hester, Blume, Tara Dunning, Hannah Phillips and Olivia Douglas.
"They are special to me because they are one of the first groups I had in junior high when I did junior high for a little bit," Westerfield said. "So we've been together a long time, won a lot of ballgames together. I've seen them grow mentally, I've seen them grow physically. We've had lots of conversations about things that have gone on in their lives. The relationship between us isn't just about basketball. I know that didn't go away. I'm close to several kids I've coached and I know that bond is something we'll have forever. I just hate it that they are not going to get to go play together anymore. That's kind of sad."
There were five lead changes and a tie in the first three minutes before the Tigers took the lead for good.
Arcadia Valley was up three with under four minutes to play, then went on an eight-point run and Twin Rivers never got closer than seven points the rest of the game. Twin Rivers also lost in December to Arcadia Valley by nine points.
"When we first started talking about playing Twin Rivers again, we knew we had to stay aggressive," Whited said. "We knew they were going to try and press us 3/4 court like they did before and we were just going to try to attack it. Usually if we think positively about getting the ball down the court and attacking it and finishing around the basket, we usually do a pretty good job."
Josie Landrum made three 3-pointer in the first quarter and finished with 25 points for Arcadia Valley. Gracee Smith got 20 points, Katie Whited added 16 and Makayla Moise had 11.