The Fatima Lady Comets were not impressed by South Callaway's perfect resume'. Hardly. They opened the game with a 14-0 explosion and held the lead until the final seconds of the third quarter, before the Lady Bulldogs rallied for a 52-42 semifinal win in the Class 3 District 9 semifinals at Fatima on Wednesday night.

There's a fine line between being perfect and being done for the season.

"We knew Fatima had all the manpower in the world to win this thing," Lady Bulldogs coach Darren Humphrey said. "But you know what? We just came through with determination.

"I wouldn't take any other group of girls than the group we have, with what we just went through and having that much trust in them. They're great a group, they're performers in the end."

But in the beginning, not so much ... at least on this night.

Fourth-seeded Fatima, which ends the season at 19-8, is the team that was perfect at the start, hitting its first three shots and sprinting out to an 8-0 lead in the game's first 90 seconds. One of those was 3-pointer by Courtney Wolfe, who would later hit two more-3 balls as the lead blossomed to 14-0 with three minutes left in the opening quarter.

The key to the great start?

"We shot the ball well and executed," Fatima coach Matt Baker said.

Simple game.

The top-seeded Lady Bulldogs (25-0, ranked No. 2 in the state) were clearly knocked back on their heels.

"I think we were a little nervous," Humphrey said. "We just had to extend (the defense) out on them and had to get rebounds, that's what we were lacking."

South Callaway closed the first quarter with an 8-2 run to get within 16-8 and after scoring the first seven points of the second , lo and behold, that 14-0 lead had evaporated to 16-15 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the half.

But the Lady Comets had an answer, which was perhaps even more impressive than their game-opening salvo. Fatima steadied the ship the rest of the half to maintain a 27-23 advantage at the break.

This really shouldn't have been a surprise, however --- whether South Callaway was undefeated, or not. Just two weeks ago, the Lady Comets had a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Lady Bulldogs, in Mokane, before losing by only five.

And thanks to 3-pointers by Lauren Brandt and Wolfe early in the second half, the Lady Comets actually increased the lead to 35-27 midway through the third.

But then came a turning point --- perhaps the turning point in the game --- with just over three minutes left in the third.

Wolfe, a senior sharpshooter, got tangled up in the corner with a Lady Bulldog and would suffer an injury to her right shoulder --- possibly separated --- and she didn't return.

"She got tackled twice in the third quarter on loose balls," Baker said. "I'm not going to say it was dirty, but they let them do whatever they wanted tonight, for sure."

Wolfe had been five-of-six on 3-pointers and finished with 15 to lead Fatima, which had no answer when she left.

"Unfortunately," Baker said. "it derailed a good shot for us to play for the district title."

The Lady Comets scored only seven points the rest of the way, while the Lady Bulldogs took their first lead of the game at 37-36 on a 3-pointer by freshman Kayleigh Torufa near the end of the third.

"That was huge," Humphrey said. "We knew they were going to sag off everyone else and possibly give her a little bit of an opening, and she made the most of it."

It was South Callaway senior Adrian Mann who did most of the damage in the second half, as she scored 13 of her 19 points.

"You want her to have the ball in her hands at the end of the game, every game," Humphrey said. "She's just got that leadership power about."

It was still only a 43-40 South Cal lead with three minutes left, before the Lady Bulldogs finished it with a 9-2 run to win by 10.

Certainly not indicative of the type of game it was.

"It was just an outstanding performance by these girls to come back from that kind of deficit," Humphrey said. "This game showed just what kind of team we have. They all did an outstanding job."

They'll need more of that, as the Lady Bulldogs try to win the first district title in school history when they meet No. 2 seed Hermann (23-4) --- a 54-30 winner over Blair Oaks in the other semifinal --- for the district crown at 6 p.m. Friday.

"We just have to take it one game at a time," Humphrey said. "That's all we can do."

Getting off to a better start wouldn't be a bad idea, either.