CAMPBELLSBURG — Coach Mike Lang said he felt like his Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team gave Tecumseh all it could handle for the first 28 minutes of Saturday’s opening game in the West Washington Class A regional.

When Kailene Cockerham made her fourth 3-point basket of the game, it pulled the Cougars (16-9) within 49-47 with 4:10 on the clock.

On the Braves’ next trip to their end of the floor, Morgan Wilson hit her second 3-pointer of the fourth period.

“That was huge,” Lang said as it jump-started the Braves to an 18-9 finish and a 67-56 win.

“I thought we played well. I thought we played hard,” Lang said. “We were close with four minutes to go. We were right there with them, running play for play with them, and they got loose for a three, and then we let four or five offensive rebounds go, and that was the ballgame.”

Wilson started the Braves on an 11-0 run as Trinity didn’t score again until Liza Froedge made a 3-pointer with 1:30 left to make it a 60-50 game.

“I can’t fault the kids’ effort, not for one second, because they defended hard, we executed offensively, we moved the ball,” Lang said. “We were capitalizing on their mistakes. It was like I said going in, we knew they wanted to get the ball down low to (Kaybree) Oxley. She’s a load. We had a hard time stopping her.”

Several times during the game, the Braves worked the ball into Oxley in the low post, and the 5-foot-10 senior would pivot around a Trinity defender and lay the ball off the glass or get fouled. She shot 11-for-19 from the floor and 5-for-9 from the line for 27 points, and she pulled down 13 rebounds to help Tecumseh to a 38-20 advantage on the boards.

Jenn Donohoo, a 5-9 sophomore forward, complemented Oxley’s game with 20 points and 10 rebounds of her own. Both of those Braves had at least two points and one rebound in each period.

“They’ve got two good scorers, and in all honesty, I thought our defensive game plan was good going in. It showed that way for 28 minutes,” Lang said.

The Cougars had trouble handling the ball early, committing seven turnovers in the opening period. Oxley scored six points to help the Braves to a 16-10 lead.

“Turnovers, that’s what I worried about,” Lang said, “What we focused on was the first four minutes of the game. I don’t know if it was the environment or what the situation was. When you play a good team, the margin for error is slim. Early on, we missed some opportunities down low with some open layups. We had a good plan to attack it, mix it up a little bit. The first four minutes hurt us.”

Cockerham, who had four points in the first period, made her first three shots of the second period, including a 3-pointer, and scored eight points to help the Cougars to a 20-20 tie with 2:39 remaining before the Braves took a 24-20 lead into the locker room.

Cockerham opened the scoring in the third period with a 3-pointer and Froedge added a three late in the period to help the Cougars outscore the Braves 16-13 and trail 37-36 going into the fourth.

The score was tied at 38 and at 40 before the Braves took the lead for good.

The Braves (18-8) had defensive pressure on Trinity’s Bailey Tabeling throughout the game and held her to six points, but Lang said she did an excellent job finding her teammates as she had nine assists.

“They keyed in on Bailey,” Lang said. “I thought Bailey did an outstanding job getting passes to open people to be successful.”

Tabeling topped the Cougars with 11 rebounds, and she has 1,583 points through her junior year.

Cockerham had the hot hand for the Cougars throughout as she scored four or more points in every period and finished with a career-high 24 points.

“Kailene was hot from three,” Lang said.

This was Cockerham’s only 20-point game of her career. Her previous high was 19 against North Harrison her junior year.

“That’s one we’re going to look back at and watch the film and we’re going to talk about missed opportunities,” Lang said. “We’re going to have to go back and figure out the last 4:30.”