VERNON — The Mathews Mustangs gave them a scare, but a third quarter rally propelled the Badger Braves to a 58-45 victory over their Northeastern Athletic Conference rival Mathews on Monday.

The Mustangs defense was intense in the first half. Mathews forced turnovers and created scoring opportunities with its fast break. The Mustangs defense limited Badger early in the game as they led their opponents 24-19 at halftime.

“The game plan doesn’t change much for us game to game,” Mathews head coach Stephen Sponsler said. “It’s intense man-to-man defense and we press a little bit, but they’ve got a lot of speed, so we didn’t really want to press them… The girls did a really good job, I told them we have to keep Badger off the boards, they do a really good job of getting second chance points. I thought we did that in the first half, in the second half we didn’t do it as well.”

Badger came alive in the third quarter with stellar play from juniors Hannah Betts and Brianna Huscroft.

Betts helped to increase the Brave’s effort level as she showed no fear of driving to the basket and drawing contact. She finished the game with a team-high 15 points.

“Her effort, flying around and doing the little things, develops our offense,” Badger head coach Lavell Turnage said.

But it was the sharp shooting of Huscroft that helped Badger seize momentum in the third quarter.

After the Braves struggled to score early in the game, Huscroft connected on three consecutive three-point-shots that gave the Braves a 43-35 lead and plenty of confidence heading into the fourth quarter.

“When Huscroft makes one, she’s going to make the next two or three,” Turnage said. “I knew that after one fell it would be big for her to keep it going. We have a good number of shooters on our team, it’s all about being shot ready and trusting yourself to make the shot. It was big for the team because we needed some momentum and the momentum shifted in the third quarter.”

The Mustangs committed seven personal fouls in the first half and found their depth to be an issue as they tried to hold off the Braves’ third-quarter surge.

“It came down to us being in foul trouble,” Sponsler said. “I went to a zone defense because we don’t have a lot of depth. And, with (Badger’s) speed, my girls coming off the bench aren’t as fast as my starters. So, we had to go to a zone to try to counteract their speed, but that’s when (Huscroft) started making threes.”

Badger junior Katie Grexa scored four of her 14 points in the fourth quarter to help her team close our Mathews. Turnage thought that Grexa helped guide her teammates to success.

“She leads,” Turnage said. “Offensively and on the defensive end. If anybody needs picked up, she’s communicating, talking to the girls, letting them know it’s OK if they miss a free throw, next one up.”

Mathews senior Brook Bauer scored 17 points for her team while junior Ava Clayton added 11, but it was not enough for the Mustangs to overcome the second half surge by the Braves.

With the loss, Mathews falls to an 11-8 overall record and a 9-4 record in conference play. With the victory, Badger improves to a 17-3 overall record and remains unbeaten with a 13-0 record in Northeastern conference play.