Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Emma Hauger drives to the basket during a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament game against Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Monday at Springfield High School.

SPRINGFIELD — The fifth-seeded Springfield Tigers extended a 22-19 halftime lead to take a 53-42 win over 13th-seeded Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Monday in a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament game.

“In the first half, everybody’s really fresh,” Springfield head coach Mike Kelly said. “Everybody was really battling and nervous and everything else. The big key to our transition was we were able to get some steals. That was definitely the key in the second half, that we came out on their wings a little more and they turned the ball over.

“We got some steals, and our posts did a nice job of bounce passing across the lane to each other. I though we played a really good ball game tonight.”

Kelly also mention free-throw shooting as a key for the game as Springfield got into the bonus early in the second.

Springfield’s Emma Hauger said the team was able to settle in to what they wanted to do in the second half.

“I feel like at the beginning of the game there was just nerves there,” she said. “After a while, we started getting fast breaks and passing the ball, and that led to more open shots. I feel like we got going.”

Hauger finished the game with a team-high 17 points, five steals and three rebounds, while Kendall Krueger had 14 points and seven rebounds. Olivia Milbrath added 12 points and three rebounds for the Tigers.

While the offense started out slowly for Springfield, the defense was shutdown from the start, holding the Falcons to 19 first-half points.

“We changed up our D,” Hauger said. “We don’t usually do a 1-2-2, and today I felt like we did a really good job of getting out to the corners and stopping their bigs down low. That helped us stop their most popular game.”

The game was close early before Springfield went on a 8-0 run, sparked by a mid-range jumper from Jada Reese and closed by a transition layup from Milbrath. ACGC responded with 6 unanswered points before Springfield got on the board again with a pair of free throws from Ayla Rothmeier to go up 22-17. ACGC’s Ruby Klinger made one final shot before halftime to put the score at 22-19.

ACGC tied the game with a 3-pointer by Brooke Schultz coming out of the break, and the teams traded buckets for several possessions. ACGE took a lead on another 3-pointer from Schultz, but Springfield went on a 6-0 run with a putback from Milbrath and a steal-and-score from Hauger to go up 35-29. This time, Springfield kept the lead for good, going up 52-38 on a pair of free throws from Krueger. Two more free throws from Hauger in the double bonus sealed the victory for Springfield.

Springfield improves to 15-11 and will play fourth-seeded Martin County West at St. Peter High School on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Kelly said slowing down MCW’s Emily Anderson would be key to getting the win over the Mavericks.

“Emily Anderson’s one of the better ball players in the area,” he said. “So that’s going to be a key for us to try to shut her down. Hopefully we can keep the other girls from scoring very much either. We’ll just try to pack it in there and we can play and rebound like we did tonight.”

Last year, the Tigers made a deep playoff run, finishing as section runners up after being seeded third in the south subsection. As part of that run, Springfield defeated second-seeded MCW 60-48 to advance to the section semifinals. Hauger says the team has a similar goal this year after making a deep run a season ago.

“I feel like you’ve just got to stay motivated and keep going,” she said. “You want to push for that same goal since we made it there last year. Now it’s a big goal of ours to make it there again and keep playing our game. I feel like we know what we can do, we just have to play it and do it.”