The Ottawa girls basketball team struggled out the gate in Monday’s Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional semifinal against Plano at A.J. Sellett Gymnasium.

The No. 3-seeded Pirates missed all but one of their first 17 shots and trailed the No. 6-seeded Reapers by seven points midway into the second quarter.

But then Ottawa used a 16-0 run over the next 8 minutes, 16 seconds of game time and closed out the third quarter on a 7-0 burst to eventually advance with a 43-21 victory.

Ottawa (19-9) will play No. 2 Sterling, a 64-40 winner over the host Cavaliers in the night’s opening semifinal, at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the championship game.

Plano ends the season at 18-14.

“When you reach the postseason, you always expect there might be some jitters, and the things might look a little ragged and shots might not fall like you’re used to them,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “Like we told the girls, keep sticking together like you have all season. They did that.

“We talked at halftime about how, if we keep playing good defense we’re going to create offensive chances out of it. We really picked things up on the defensive end midway into the second quarter and were able to convert some turnovers into transition. We then put together a nice run at the end of the third to make it a four-possession game.”

Plano freshman Niya Viser scored all five of her team’s points in the opening quarter for a 5-2 lead.

A free-throw line jumper by senior Jadyn Long, a drive by Viser and a rebound hoop from Chloe Rowe pushed the Reapers’ lead to 11-4 at the four-minute mark of the second.

Ottawa senior Mary Stisser netted seven points, and freshman Kennedy Kane six to close out the half to give the Pirates a 17-11 halftime lead.

“We notoriously don’t shoot well in this gym. I don’t know why, but we just struggle to make shots here,” Stisser said. “But Coach Moore always talks about how on nights when shots aren’t falling, you just have to work that much harder on the defensive end.

“I felt like in the third quarter our defense was really good. We were able to turn a couple turnovers into layups, and then Libby knocked down a couple of 3s. We had the momentum from there.”

Plano closed to within five after a layup by Rowe and three-point play by Jailyn Brown, but the Pirates closed out the frame on drives by Kane and Ashlynn Ganiere and a triple by Libby Muffler to extend the advantage to 30-20.

Muffler - who scored a game-high 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds - missed her first five 3s, but finished hitting three of her last four.

“It’s tough when your first couple of shots don’t go in, but I don’t want to not shoot and pass up open shots,” Muffler said. “I just want to make sure I’m taking good shots in rhythm. It was nice in the third quarter to finally see one go in; it was a big confidence boost for me.”

From there, Ottawa outscored Plano 13-0 over the final eight minutes.

Ottawa hit 15 of 46 [33%] from the field, while Plano sank just 8 of 48 [17%].

Kane ended with 10 points and five rebounds, Stisser nine points, five rebounds and three steals, Hailey Thrush four points and four rebounds, and Ganiere three points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

Viser led Plano with 10 points and four rebounds. Brown had five points and six rebounds, and Rowe tallied four points and a game-best 17 rebounds.

“Ottawa has a solid program, and they do what they do really well under Coach Moore,” Plano coach Tristan Spivey said. “We can be a loose cannon – if our shots are going in, we look really good, but if there not like they weren’t tonight, we look very inconsistent.

“We have a young team, and I thought we started the game pretty well, but we had a long stretch where we didn’t score. That allowed Ottawa to build a lead, and we just weren’t able to find the shooting range to get back in it.”