“A win is a win and I’m proud of them,” head coach Richard Bassett said afterward. “There’s still a lot of things we’ve got to do to get better, but we did enough to win, we executed right.”

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, as the Lady Ridgerunners (3-5) picked up where they left off in last Friday’s four-overtime loss to Miami, shooting abysmally from the field.

But Wagoner (3-7) was even worse, hitting just one field goal in the first half as Grove took a 14-4 lead into the break.

The two teams settled into something of an offensive groove in the third quarter. Wagoner’s points came almost exclusively from senior post Cherokee Ridge, who scored 11 of her game-high 13 points in the third period, at one point pulling the Lady Bulldogs to within two at 22-20 with 20 seconds left in the period.

“It’s bad defense,” Bassett said. “We were losing her. We decided before Christmas Break that we were going to front anything below the mid-post because we’re pressuring up on the perimeter then and when you suck the guard up then you just throw it into the post. So we work on backside helping there and fronting the post. That works when we do it, but we’re just standing behind her. She’s good enough to turn around and shoot it. She shot well around the elbow.”

The Lady Ridgerunners would weather the storm, going on a 7-2 run as Emilee Iverson hit a three at the end of the third, and Karah Bassett cashed in a pair of free throws following a technical foul on the Wagoner bench to make it a seven-point game.

From there, it would become a free throw shooting contest, and the Lady Ridgerunners would knock down 9-of-10 in the final period, leading by as much as 15 late in the game.

That came after an 11-of-23 performance at the line against Miami, including several key misses at the end of regulation and in the overtimes.

“Free throws are mental,” Bassett said. “The problem the other night was we got the wrong people to the free throw line.”

Karah Bassett and Iverson led Grove with 10 points each, with Iverson also getting 3 assists and 3 blocks. Libby Morris scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Paige Miller had 6 points and 8 rebounds.

Kristen Robbins had 8 points and 6 rebounds for Wagoner.

Grove will open the Port City Classic in Catoosa on Thursday at 1 p.m. against Claremore-Sequoyah