Staff photo / Brian Yauger Badger’s Katie Grexa (12) works around a screen as Pymatuning Valley’s Alaina Neczeporenko plays defense. Grexa scored 12 points, including 10 from the free-throw line to lead the Braves to a 41-37 victory.

VERNON — The Badger Braves needed a win Thursday night to secure a spot in the Northeastern Athletic Conference title game. It would them them a shot to play for their first league title in nearly 40 years.

Standing in their way? The Pymatuning Valley Lakers.

Badger didn’t have its best night shooting, but overcame it with lockdown defense and some well-timed steals, taking down the Lakers 41-37 in an overtime thriller.

“We knew it’d be a tough game because we were coming off the back-to-back,” Braves coach LaVell Turnage said. “So when shots weren’t falling, I told them ‘If nothing else, we’re going to play defense. We’re going to sit down and play defense the right way even when a couple shots are being made.’ That’s what kept us in the game, that’s what got us back in the game, and that’s what won us the game.”

After building up a 20-16 halftime lead, the Lakers rallied in the third quarter, erasing the Badger lead and entered the fourth quarter with a 30-27 advantage.

The Braves’ defense buckled down once again, holding Pymatuning Valley to just five points in the final frame to help force overtime. That lockdown defense continued into the extra time, with Badger allowing just a single bucket.

Defense has been the team’s focus this year. The Braves are trying to set a standard, not just for themselves, but to be one of the scrappiest teams in their division. The little things add up.

“I set a standard and I hold them accountable every chance I can because I know what they’re capable of doing,” Turnage said. “I don’t want to be that Division IV team that can’t get on the floor, do the little things. Check out, rebound, make the extra pass, that’s what we pride ourselves on.”

A bucket from Mackenzie Gross and four points from the stripe for Katie Grexa (game-high 12 points) helped seal the deal for the Braves in the bonus period.

Badger (15-3) has high aspirations this season and Turnage was admittedly excited to get a chance to run into some adversity, just so they could overcome it.

“I was telling my coaching staff that I love situations like that, because if nothing else, you learned,” Turnage said. “We learned today. We learned some things that we need to work on and learned some things that we’re good at and that we constantly keep doing. I love situations like that where we can face adversity head on and just learn from it.”

The win gives the Braves their 14th straight win, dating back to the first week of December. After dropping three of the first four contests this season, Badger has been blazing through its schedule.

Punching their ticket to the NAC title game was goal No. 1 this season. It’s been a long time since it happened, and the team was thrilled to seal the deal Thursday. Now, they have to win it.

“That was the first goal for us this year is to play in the NAC championship and then win that championship because it hasn’t been done in 38 years,” Turnage said. “Just give you a little hint, I’m 29 years old, so I wasn’t even alive the last time it happened. It’s something special that they can never forget and nobody can ever take it from us.”

Badger looks to continue its hot streak on Saturday when they take on Niles.