The win was an ugly one on Monday morning but the Lady Trojans will take it as they had to go to overtime to take care of the feisty Karnes City Lady Badgers, 59-57.

“We were flat in the first half. Our biggest problem was a lack of execution in the first half,” said Lady Trojan head coach Greg Gonzales.

“The girls did not begin playing well until the second half and then we had some clock management problems down the stretch.”

The Lady Badgers played a pressing, pressure defense that created several Beeville turnovers, not only in the first half, but throughout the tilt. But, the Lady Trojans kept coming at the Karnes City girls and got the baskets or free throws when necessary. It was a 10-10 tie at the end of one period. The Beeville ladies fought back from an early 6-3 deficit to tie the game at the end of the first eight minutes.

The Lady Badgers controlled most of the second quarter, owning a 23-16 advantage before the Beeville girls, behind a Hennig basket and free throw pulled to within two at 23-21 late in the second quarter. The teams went into the locker rooms for the halftime break with Karnes City up by one, 24-23.

The third quarter had the KC girls fall behind 31-27 at the three-minute mark. The Lady Badgers did not like looking up at the Beeville girls and ran off a 11-0 spurt to close out the third period to jump in front 38-31.

The Lady Trojans scored the first six of the fourth quarter behind baskets from Hennig and Erin Tabb along with a couple of free throws by Hennig to pull within one at 38-37. The KC girls outscored the Lady Trojans 5-2 over the next couple of minutes to stretch their lead back to a somewhat comfortable 43-39 with three minutes left to play.

A Beeville run of 8-0, led by Hennig, Tabb and a couple of free throws from Melanie Chargualaf, put the Lady Trojans in front 47-43 with just 46 seconds remaining in the game. Karnes City hit one basket and then Beeville’s Brandy Perez hit one of two at the charity stripe to make it a 48-45 ball game with a little over 17 seconds left on the clock.

The Lady Badgers got one free throw of their own and then stole an inbounds pass for a quick lay-up to tie the game at 48. A last-second shot from Hennig bounced off the rim and the game went into overtime, all tied at 48.

The Lady Trojans owned the OT period, getting in front 55-49 by making good on their trips to the free throw line and a three-pointer by Perez. A couple of turnovers gave the Lady Badgers a chance and they took advantage of the Beeville miscues. The KC girls closed the gap and made it a 57-55 game with less than a minute to play. Hennig hit a two-pointer to give the JHS girls a four-point lead but another turnover turned into a Lady Badger basket to make it 59-57 with 7.63 seconds left on the clock.

Beeville used about three of those seconds before a deflected pass went out of bounds. The Lady Trojans got the inbounds pass to work and the buzzer sounded with the Beeville girls earning the two-point victory.

Hennig led the Beeville scoring with 20 points in the win. Tabb finished with 15, 13 coming in the second half despite foul trouble. Cassandra Vela and Chargualaf followed with eight each. Brandy Perez scored four while Apryl Cortez and Chelsea Contreras both made two.

The Lady Trojans played the Taft Lady Greyhounds at 8 p.m. Monday to complete their pool play.

A Beeville win in that game would put the Lady Trojans in the Gold bracket for Tuesday’s finals against the winner of pool D, which consists of Mathis, Port Lavaca and Poth, at 2 p.m.