NORTH ROBINSON — This was a game the Seneca East girls’ basketball team desperately needed.

Simply put, the Tigers couldn’t fall two games back of Colonel Crawford in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference race.

The Tigers got it.

Seneca East held Colonel Crawford to just six-of-25 shooting in the first half and hit eight of their 10 shots in the fourth period to down the Eagles, 48-35, Tuesday night at Mac Morrison Gymnasium.

The Eagles fell to 4-1 in the N10, 6-1 overall. Seneca East improved to 4-1 in the conference, 5-2 overall.

Seneca East coach Don Vogt said that this was a big win for his team.

“I’m just proud of my kids,” Vogt said. “They were undefeated, and our kids are still growing. Very young and, with each game, we just keep getting better and better.”

Colonel Crawford coach Kyle Fenner said that the Tigers were simply more aggressive than her team.

“It’s one loss,” Fenner said. “We’ll come back tomorrow, and we’ll move on. It just wasn’t us. We didn’t make shots and we were on our heels, taking punches from them instead of the other way around. We got frustrated because we didn’t make shots in the first half.”

Crawford finished hitting just 14 of 47 shots from the floor for the game, as the Tigers controlled the game with their full-court defense.

“The full court press, I thought the top guards did a tremendous job of rotating and taking away the side pass, which, I think, kept them from doing some of the things they wanted to do,” Vogt said.

“It’s all matchup stuff, the only thing that we need to work on is getting that girl out to the corner quicker,” he added. “They had some nice three-point looks there.”

The Tigers never trailed in the game, taking a 14-8 after one period. But the Eagles did come back to tie the game at 16-16 late in the second period on an Allison Teglovic basket.

Seneca East then got scores from Alexis Hicks and Jessica Bowerman to take a 20-16 lead at the break.

“One thing I told them at halftime,” Vogt said. “Sometimes, because they’re younger, they kind of go off on their own tangent, and when that happens you have five players just running around and not in synch with each other. We talked about that a little bit.”

The Tigers came out in the third period and scored 10 of the game’s 12 points to take a 30-18 lead.

From there, the Eagles never got closer than nine points.

Fenner said that her team’s effort was normal.

“We always play hard,” Fenner said. “I never question their effort. They’re competitors and they will play hard.”

Teglovic and Hannah Plesac each paced the Eagles with 12 points. Makenna Depinet led Seneca East with 15 points and Bowerman added 12.

In the reserve game, Mya Ousley drained a three with seven seconds left as Seneca East won, 36-33. Mallory Plesac led Colonel Crawford with 14. Katelyn Siesel paced Seneca East with 10.

Box score

Seneca East               14      6    12    16 — 48

Colonel Crawford      8      8      5    14 — 35

Seneca East: (5-2, 4-1 N10): Shots 22-47; 3-pt. shots 2 (Bailey Hamilton, Makenna Depinet); Free throws 2-6; Rebounds 28; Turnovers 16. Scoring: Bailey Hamilton 3 0 7, Jessica Bowerman 5 2 12, Brooke Bordner 1 0 2, Makenna Depinet 7 0 15, Amelia Boes 2 0 4, Alexis Hicks 4 0 8.

Colonel Crawford: (6-1, 4-1 N10): Shots 14-48; 3-pt. shots 4 (Hannah Pleasac 2, Theresa Dzugan, Kaylyn Risner); Free throws 3-8; Rebounds 29; Turnovers 21. Scoring: Theresa Dzugan 1 0 3, Mariah Cotsamire 0 1 1, Hannah Pleasac 5 0 12, Kaylyn Risner 2 2 7, Allison Teglovic 6 0 12.

JV: Seneca East 36-33.