Game photos courtesy of Tanner Colvin

With both of their seasons hanging in the balance, the third meeting between the Salina South and Salina Central girls basketball teams quickly turned into a battle of resilience and survival.

In the end, it was South that persevered after trailing most of the game, rallying for a 55-45 Class 5A sub-state semifinal victory over host Central on Wednesday night at the Brickhouse.

“I think the biggest thing in any South-Central game is who can handle the punches that you have to absorb, and I feel like the girls did that for four quarters today,” said South coach Justin Ebert, whose Cougars improved to 14-10 and will go on the road to face No. 1 West seed Andover (22-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday in the sub-state final. (Central) got off to a really hot start, but they responded and knocked down a lot of shots.

“The girls didn’t give up, they kept grinding, and we were able to kind of grit out and ugly win.”

South did not take its first lead of the second half until nearly a minute into the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as six points early. Senior guard Brooklyn Jordan led the charge with half of her game-high 24 points in the period, including three 3-pointers.

With the Cougars down 39-36 heading into the fourth quarter, Jordan quickly tied it on a 3-pointer and then put her team in front, 41-39, on a drive to the basket. Three of the game’s four ties and lead changes took place in the fourth.

“I guess I’d say after halftime I really turned it into gear,” said Jordan, who finished with six 3-pointers on 10 attempts. “We had to take control, and the way to do that is threes.”

South’s eight 3-pointers, combined with center Paityn Fritz’s presence inside proved to be enough for South, which outscored Central 19-6 in the fourth quarter including the game’s last eight points.

“We worked really well as a team and we played to the scout,” said Fritz, who overcame an off night shooting by knocking down 10 of 13 free throws to finish with 18 points. “I think we played more composed (in the second half).”

“We played better as a team and playing to our strengths.”

The combination of Jordan and Fritz, plus eight fourth-quarter free throws, proved to be enough.

“There’s no question we’re going to have P (Fritz), and P is going to score down low, and we’ve got to find guard scoring,” Ebert said. “And Brookly did a great job today of not only knocking down some key shots, but there to start the fourth quarter she was really on fire.

“She becomes really dangerous whenever she’s able to hit 3-pointers, because she can get downhill really well.”

Central led 31-26 at halftime behind the one-two punch of point guard Lexie Guerrero and forward Makambri Hastings, who scored all but three of the Mustangs’ points before the break. But Guerrero picked up her fourth foul 55 seconds into the third quarter, and after returning to start the fourth she fouled out when South’s Kyla Hamel took a charge with 6:26 left.

“It helped a lot to get Guerrero in foul trouble,” Jordan said. “We really took advantage of that, because we’re older and we’re more experienced than the people they had on the court at the time. So, we really took advantage of being more mentally mature.”

South has eight seniors on its roster to three for Central.

Guerrero led No. 8 seed Central (13-11) with 16 points, while Hastings had 12 on four first-half three pointers. But neither of them scored after intermission.

“We just re-emphasized that we’ve got to run their shooters off the line,” Ebert said. “I felt like we gave up too many open looks away from the 3-point line.”

“They were able to knock down some big shots and some deep shots on us, so we just had to extend it a little bit.”

While Guerrero was limited by fouls for Central, South’s Jordan survived a pair of first-quarter personals and another in the third to finish for four.

“Foul trouble seemed to become a common theme there late in this game for both sides,” Ebert said. “Brooklyn got two in the first quarter, but we made the decision that she was going to play in the second and kept her on the court when she got her fourth.”

“And so, our girls did a good job of making sure not to pick up that next foul, that fifth foul, or that third foul in the first half. Mentally, I felt like they were locked in and able to kind of overcome some challenges throughout the course of the game.”

South now takes on an Andover team that went unbeaten in Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Division II with its only loss to Class 6A power Derby. The Trojans beat Arkansas City, 74-23, in their first-round game Wednesday.

“At this point in the season, anybody you play is going to be a good basketball team,” Ebert said. “So, we’re excited about what we can do and hopefully we can go down Saturday and give them a battle.”