SHELBY — Mansfield Christian coach Amy Young had a goal, to get out to an early lead and then hold it.

Her Flames did exactly that.

Mansfield Christian jumped out to a 14-point second-quarter lead and held off a Crestline charge in the second half to beat the Bulldogs, 50-46, in the opening round of the Division IV sectional tournament at Shelby Tuesday night.

The Flames will face top-seeded Seneca East on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. in Shelby. The Bulldogs finished the season at 9-14.

Crestline post Lauryn Tadda became the fourth player in school history to reach 1000 career points despite the loss. Tadda led all players with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

“I think it’s cool that I’m only five-foot-six and I’m a walking double-double,” Tadda said. “I think that’s pretty good. I’m glad that every year we got our wins to increase and I helped to bring success to this program. I hope the younger girls bring more.”

It was Tadda who brought the Bulldogs back in the third period, scoring eight points as the Bulldogs came back from a 12-point halftime deficit to cut the lead to one, 35-34, late in the third period. Christian held a 39-34 lead entering the final frame.

“It makes me think that all the AAU tournaments, practices and all the summer stuff paid off,” Tadda said.

Crestline managed to tie the game at 41-41 early in the fourth period on a Tadda basket but scored just three points over the final 4:43 of the game. Crestline made just 14 of 52 shots on the night.

Young felt that her team played better in the second half than they did both times previously against the Bulldogs.

“That was our goal, to come out and get a 12- to 14-point lead early in the game and before halftime,” Young said. “We had a lead on them before in a game before halftime, but they came back and beat us by too many points. So, it was crucial to get out and keep that lead.

“In the third quarter, they got out and ran on us a little bit and got back into the game, but we were able to pull through that and get a win,” Young added.

Crestline coach Kyle Strauch said it’s tough to beat a team three times in a season.

“They just came out and played extremely hard,” Strauch said. “All the credit goes to them.”

Strauch felt that his team played nervous in the first half.

“But I told the girls, they played close enough that they think they can come in here and play with confidence and that’s what they did,” he added.

Strauch thought that the team played much better after Tadda scored her milestone basket.

“I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, I’m not sure,” Strauch said. “But we did start playing better when she scored her 1000th point. We relaxed a little bit, but we couldn’t get over the hump.

“We’ve improved over the year and we’ve played really well late in the season,” he added. “Tonight is kinda excluded. But the last four or five games are probably our best games of the year.”

Box score

Christian     8   19   12   11 — 50

Christian       6   9   19   12 — 46

Mansfield Christian (11-9): Shots 20-58; 3-pt. shots 3 (Aublynn Meiyer 2, Raelyn Todd); Free throws 7-15; Rebounds 35; Turnovers 26. Scoring: Aublynn Maiyer 3 0 8, Anne Sparks 1 3 5, Raelyn Todd 3 0 7, Alexis Rippel 4 3 11, Bri Keib 3 1 7, Elle Schmitz 4 0 8, Noelle Beale 2 0 4.

Crestline (9-14): Shots 14-52; 3-pt. shots 1 (Ivy Stewart 2); Free throws 17-24; Rebounds 35; Turnovers 25. Scoring: Hannah Delong 1 0 2,Dalani Kiser 2 0 4, Ivy Stewart 1 0 3, Kennedy Moore 2 0 4, Lauryn Tadda 6 10 22, Daija Sewell 2 7 11.