After falling behind by double digits in the first five minutes Monday, Newman figured things out.

Lucy Oetting got hot from deep, and the rest of the Comets followed their lone senior’s lead in a 60-51 win over Stillman Valley.

“I would say my coach lit a fire under my butt, and I got angry and just started playing well. And the team, they just kept on going with me,” said Oetting, who hit four 3s in the first quarter and six in the game. “Our energy was so high after that first 3.

“Once I made that 3, I knew it was going to be a great game.”

The Cardinals jumped out to a 13-2 lead, then got a 3-pointer from Kaiya Hildreth to answer Oetting’s first bomb. But Oetting nailed three more 3s in the next 1:38 to cut the deficit to 16-14. Gisselle Martin added a 3 a half-minute later, and Newman trailed just 20-17 after the first quarter.

Lillian Green’s 3 early in the second made it 24-17 Stillman, but Newman (21-5) took control from there with a 16-6 run to take a 33-30 lead in the final minute of the first half.

“Once we started passing it around and noticed Lucy open a couple times, we started feeding her, and she was making the shots, and that got us going,” Martin said. “Honestly, we were playing a little scared in the beginning. But then we came together and talked it out, told ourselves, ‘This is our court and we got this!’

“We knew as long as we played together, we’d play well.”

The Comets picked up the intensity on both ends of the court, running their offense to get shots both inside and outside, and also flustering Stillman Valley (17-8) with an aggressive defense.

Newman nabbed 15 steals and forced 21 turnovers. The Cardinals shot 37.3% (19 of 51) while also struggling from the free-throw line, hitting just 10 of their 20 foul shots. Those issues overshadowed a 47-28 rebounding advantage and 18 second-chance points.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” Stillman coach Bobby Mellon said. “When you shoot 50% from the free-throw line and not great from the field overall, those things are going to be tough to overcome. We had way too many turnovers, and we’ve got to focus on controlling the ball a little bit better, being more disciplined about getting into the spots we’re supposed to, being patient and executing.”

Oetting hit two more 3s early in the third quarter, and Veronica Haley’s three-point play followed by Martin’s steal and layup gave the Comets a 48-41 lead with 1:26 left in the period.

Stillman got within 48-47 in the first two minutes of the fourth thanks to a post bucket by Dailene Wade and 3 by Green, but Martin answered with three consecutive layups – the first in transition and the next two on drives to the rim – to stretch the margin to 54-47 with 3:01 to go.

The Comets got several key stops in the fourth quarter, and a basket by Anna Propheter and free throws from Propheter, Martin and Elaina Allen sealed their seventh straight win and 11th in their last 12 games.

“Just playing together, talking, knowing where everyone is and keeping them out of the middle, that was the key on defense,” Martin said. “I’m really happy with this team, and I love this team so much.”

Martin led Newman with 22 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals. Oetting added 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Haley had nine points, nine rebounds and three steals, and Propheter chipped in seven points, four steals and two assists.

“I feel like this game shows that even when our shots aren’t falling, our defense is still pretty strong,” Oetting said. “We just want to be loud and be fast, because if our defense stays strong, our offense will eventually come.”

Wade (16 points, 14 rebounds, two assists) and Anna Withers (15 points, 11 rebounds) both had double-doubles for the Cardinals, and Green added 13 points, eight rebounds and two assists.

“A lot of the things we’ve been talking about all season long, it’s like we take those couple steps in the right direction, and then unfortunately we have a game like this and we say, ‘OK, let’s refocus again,’ ” Mellon said.

“We played really well on Friday against [Rockford] Lutheran – that was kind of a grind-it-out game, we executed really well – so it kind of stings a little bit of thinking, ‘All right, we’re going in the right direction,’ and then we come out here and start struggling a little bit.”