For the first time in 20 years, the Harrisburg Lady Bulldog varsity team suited up to play in the old gym that is located in what is now the Harrisburg middle school. The Lady Bulldogs may have awakened a few ghosts in the gym with the 53-46 victory over eighth-seeded Father Tolton Trailblazers. Tolton, a Class 3 school, went into the Harrisburg tournament with a 2-9  record. Harrisburg (9-9) is a Class 2 school.

After a heartbreaking 53-52 loss to Linn on Monday, the Lady Bulldogs were out to get back on a winning track, but during the first half, it looked as if that might not happen. Tolton jumped ahead 17-12 at the end of the first quarter and bumped that lead to 30-22 at intermission.

“I didn’t draw anything up on the board at halftime,” said Harrisburg coach Ryan Richardson. “I didn’t even touch a marker. We just went in and talked about what we needed to do, this is what we’re about, and this is what we’re not doing. We challenged them, we challenged each girl. It was passionate halftime, to say the least.”

By the end of the third quarter, that passion showed through as the Lady Bulldogs had cut the lead to one point, 36-35. In the fourth quarter, Harrisburg outscored Tolton 18-10 to claim the 53-46 win.

“When you’ve got a group of girls like ours that are just fighters that don’t back down, you can rev them up a little bit and they respond,” said Richardson. “That second half was solely on them. There wasn’t anything new, nothing that we drew up. They just executed and played harder. They were just relentless.”

Juniors Carli Ellis and Brecca Thornhill each put in 14 points to pace the Lady Bulldogs. Sophomore Emma Fischer made nine out of 10 shots from the charity stripe to earn nine points on the night. Sophomore Charlea Winscott added seven points while classmate Abby Rosson put up five. Freshman Macie Ellis topped off the Harrisburg scoring with four.

The Lady Bulldogs will square off against the seven seed, Fayette, on Friday night for the consolation trophy. Fayette is fresh off of an upset of Class 4 Fulton. The game will tipoff at 6 p.m.in the high school gym.