The seventh lead change of the game came on a Cole Camp 3-pointer in the fourth quarter during an 8-1 run for the Bluebirds.

Fayette trailed 44-41 with just a few minutes left in the season for the loser of the district quarterfinal.

Kylea Hoover scored to pull Fayette within one. On the next possession. Abbey Conrow put her head down, drove baseline, and put shot up off the glass.

The lead changed hands an eighth and final time as Fayette went on to beat Cole Camp 50-47 to reach the district semifinal round.

“I just had this feeling that we were going to pull it off,” said Conrow, who made five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 26 points.

“We definitely became way more mentally tough throughout the season. I’m just really excited for my team.”

Kylea Hoover went 3-4 at the free-throw line to seal the victory for the Falcons, finishing with 12 points.

“It was definitely nerve-racking,” said Hoover about the final minutes. “I knew we had to stay calm or else we would lose control.”

Hoover had the only points for either team during the first 5:30 of the game, as Fayette was locked in a defensive battle with a bigger team that had an advantage in the paint and on the boards.

“We’ve played teams with bigger players and we knew that they weren’t anything we hadn’t seen before,” Hoover said. “We knew we could do it.”

The Bluebirds did not score a point until the Falcons committed their eighth foul of the game at the 2:28 mark of the first quarter with Cole Camp in the bonus.

“We played good defense and they played good defense as well,” Fayette coach Valerie Foland said. “We’re two pretty good scoring teams and we held each other to pretty low scores until near the end.”

Cole Camp’s largest lead of the game was 12-6. Conrow hit a pair of 3-pointers to tie the game and Jordyn Ball put Fayette back on top. The 13-2 run put Fayette ahead by five.

Ball and Kenzie Felten each scored four points for the Falcons.

Fayette again took a five-point lead in the third quarter on a Sydney Spielbauer 3-pointer and reverse layup from Conrow that made it 37-32.

A 12-4 run swung momentum back to the Bluebirds and set up the thrilling finish.

“The girls remained calm more than I’ve ever seen them and we pulled out a close victory,” Foland said.

The sixth-seeded Falcons advance to a semifinal matchup with second-seeded Stover on Wednesday. Stover defeated district host  Smithton 55-23 in a quarterfinal match on Monday.