Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Cedar Mountain’s Kendra Erickson shoots and makes a 3 during the second half of a Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game against BOLD on Thursday night at Sibley East High School in Arlington.

ARLINGTON — Despite No. 7-seeded Cedar Mountain battling back from a first-half deficit to lead late in the second half against No. 2-seeded BOLD on Thursday, the Warriors got a pair of late 3s to hold on for a 62-55 win in the Section 2A Girls Basketball Tournament quarterfinals at Sibley East High School.

Kendra Erickson finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and three steals to lead the Cougars, while Aubrey Steffl had 13 points, 11 rebounds and four assists and Grace Hamre had 12 points. Marlie Wildt added 5 points and eight rebounds.

BOLD was led by Lainey Braulick’s 21 points, while Layla Pfarr had 18 points and Emma Flann had 11 points.

The Cougars trailed by as much as 14 early in the first half but cut their deficit to 3, 30-27, at halftime. After falling behind by double digits again in the second half, the Cougars powered back midway through the second half and took a 52-51 lead after an and-one from junior center Miley Renville.

Cougars head coach Brook Christensen said it was his team’s defensive effort that really helped get them back into the game.

“Defensively it was probably our best we’ve played all year long,” he said. “Knowing how they like to penetrate with the ball, I thought we did really well against Lainey Braulick and Kendra Erickson played her tough. That was the best I’ve seen Kendra Erickson play all year and was our leading scorer in it, too, at the same time.

“We got down early and it was one of those things where we called a timeout and I just told the girls to keep making and as long as they don’t continue to make 3s we’re fine, and then we just started scoring.”

The Warriors got that and-one back less than two minutes later on one from Braulick. The Cougars were never able to take the lead back after that but hung around and trailed 56-55 after a pair of free throws from Steffl with 1:49 left to play.

But BOLD got a big 3 from Pfarr and then another 3 from Braulick after a BOLD offensive rebound in the final minute to ice the game.

With Steffl, the Cougars’ leader in practically every statistical category, in foul trouble at the half with three fouls, the Cougars needed to get some big plays from their other players if they were going to compete. They got that in the form of Erickson and Hamre, which have their team a big boost of energy after each hitting a 3 to bring the Cougars within 4, 47-43.

“Our kind of goal pushing down the stretch is not always relying on Aubrey,” Christensen said. “She’s going to score her buckets, but if we’re going to win games you need to have multiple girls in double figures. I think we had three or four tonight.

“Kendra, when she found out that Aubrey was struggling to score just because they were keying in on her, she stepped up into that role and hit a few 3s. Where we need to get better now moving on is we’ve got to get more girls in double figures and we’ve got the talent, we’re young.”

After BOLD bumped its lead up to 5, 51-46, Renville drew a shooting foul and hit the first of her two free throws. While she missed the second, Erickson recovered the rebound and got the putback bucket to have the Cougars down 51-49.

BOLD (19-9) moves on to a 7:45 p.m. section semifinals game at Gustavus Adolphus College on Monday, while Cedar Mountain ends its season with an 18-10 record.