Staff photo / Preston Byers South Range’s Gwen Lowry prepares to shoot a 3-pointer during the Raiders’ district semifinal win vs. Girard on Tuesday in Beaver Township.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP — In each of its two previous meetings with South Range this season, Girard emerged the victors. But in a playoff game Tuesday, it was the Raiders celebrating on their home court.

South Range avoided a third loss to the Indians with a back-and-forth 37-36 win after a pair of clutch free throws by Gwen Lowry in the final minute to put the Raiders ahead.

“Just proud of the girls,” South Range head coach Jeff Fishel said. “We battled and battled, and we’ve been in games like that this season, where we battled and battled and things didn’t go our way. [We] never quit tonight, put it together, stayed focused to the end. Just really happy with the girls and happy that they were able to pull this out.”

Girard got off to an ideal start; the Indians opened the game on a 10-2 run and took a 12-7 lead into the second quarter.

However, the Raiders found their groove midway into the second, during which South Range enjoyed a 10-2 of its own. Despite holding Girard scoreless for nearly six minutes, the Raiders surrendered a 3-pointer and two successful free throws in the final 38 seconds of the half. As a result, the Indians led 23-22 at halftime.

Girard similarly wrestled control of the game away from South Range in the third quarter; after making the first basket of the half, the Indians were held scoreless for more than four minutes as the Raiders went on an 8-0 run. Like in the second, though, the Indians finished the third by outscoring South Range 8-1 to take a 33-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately for Girard, the offensive success and late-quarter runs ended with the third. The Raiders’ defense clamped down on Girard over the final eight minutes, which featured just nine total points between both teams.

“Low-scoring games don’t bother us,” Fishel said. “We hang our hat on defense. In the fourth quarter there, I think we held them to maybe three points. It was our best defensive quarter. So we always say we got to win on defense.”

After Ceci Foster made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 35 midway through the quarter, the Raiders missed go-ahead free throws and a layup before Ally Gassman made a free throw to give Girard the lead with 1:22 remaining.

The Indians’ defense yielded a block in the paint, but a subsequent traveling violation gave the Raiders the ball back with just over a minute left on the clock. About 25 seconds later, Lowry sank both free throws to take back the lead for the Raiders.

After a foul on South Range, Girard’s potential game-winner in the final 15 seconds missed and the Indians could not corral Sophia Lucente, who dribbled away precious seconds.

“[Lucente] was tough tonight, she really was,” Girard head coach Joe Bornemiss said. “She did a lot of good things for them tonight. We tried different girls on her, tried doing some different things. But she controlled the game most of the time.”

Although Girard fouled with 2.2 seconds left, the Indians were forced to foul once more to put the Raiders at the line. When they did so, only 0.2 seconds were left.

Lowry, back at the line again, missed both free throws and tipped the ball away on the second miss to end the game. The Raiders’ bench then flooded the floor to celebrate their district semifinal win with Lowry.

“The nice thing is, I think we felt like the pressure was off of us,” Fishel said of winning the third matchup vs. Girard. “Nobody expected us to win, so we were playing with house money, so to speak. And that kind of fired the girls up that everybody outside of here was talking about us not having a chance. And so they pulled together, and they did this for each other.”

For Girard, it is a disappointing end to one of the program’s most successful seasons in decades.

“It’s tough,” Bornemiss said. “It’s always tough to lose, it really is. You got a class-act senior (Makenzee White) in there who’s played her last game. She’s been through our whole program, since third grade, and it’s tough.”

Despite his team’s disappointment, Bornemiss said he hopes thrillers such as Tuesday’s at South Range can inspire younger girls to get involved in the sport.

“Games like this are so important for girls basketball because it is on a downward slope. You got teams that only play two quarters, JVs, they can’t even fill a roster. You got teams canceling in the tournament. … This type of environment, for these young kids to see that, hopefully it helps overall girls programs and we get more girls out, because it’s a heck of a game as you can see.”

The Raiders’ season continues Saturday when they will play in the Division V, Northeast 2 district final against Norwayne. The game is set for a 4 p.m tipoff at Woodridge High School in Peninsula.