The one thing the Murphysboro Lady Red Devils couldn't afford to have happen did happen on Tuesday night in their Class 2A Regional semifinal contest against Herrin.
The Tigers had soundly beaten Murphysboro twice already this season, and the Lady Red Devils fell behind by huge margins in both setbacks. That couldn't happen again if Murphysboro, the fifth seed, had any chance of stopped top-seeded Herrin.
But Herrin had other ideas, and raced out to an 18-0 lead before settling in for a 54-18 victory over the Lady Red Devils and a date with Carterville in Thursday night's championship game.
" Our goal was to try and hang around in the game and hopefully be kind of lurking halfway through the game,'' said Murphysboro co-coach Matt Hickam. "But they got off to a quick start. We didn't need that. We kind of hung with them for the rest of the first quarter."
But by the time the Lady Red Devils were able to hang with Herrin it was too late.
Austyn Ridings and Haley  Elders would combine to give a 3-0 lead 90 seconds into the contest. Then it was all Ridings for the next few minutes, as the senior reeled off eight straight points to give the Tigers an 11-0 lead at the 4:24 mark of the opening frame.
Ridings then did some damage on the defensive end of the floor as she came up with a steal and fed Maggie Bailie, who found the basket while being fouled and completed the three-point play to make it 14-0.
Elders got into the act a short time later with a turnaround jumper in the lane to make it 16-0, and Ridings drilled a 12-footer with three minutes left in the quarter to make it 18-0.
During the early spurt by the Tigers, Murphysboro committed several turnovers. The Lady Red Devils finished the game with 19 giveaways.
"Our turnovers is what led to their runs,'' Hickam said. "If we control the basketball a little bit better those runs don't happen as quickly as they happened. They came in eight and 10-point spurts. If we could have controlled the pace and controlled the basketball then those spurts are very limited.
"We provided them the opportunity to do it, and they took advantage of it. They are a very good basketball team."
Murphysboro (6-22) tried to rebound from the early deficit, and got a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer from Hilary Brewer, and a bucket from Nykeshia Dowell to close the gap to 11 points at 18-7 late in the first quarter. But a basket by Elders with seven ticks left on the clock in the opening frame gave the Tigers (27-3) a 20-7 lead.
Cassie Torgesen's basket to open the second period made it 20-9, but Herrin would score the next five points to go up, 25-9. The Tigers would then close the first half by scoring eight of the next 12 points to take a 33-13 advantage in to the halftime break.
Any hope Murphysboro had at making a comeback was quickly dowsed by the Tigers in the second half, as Herrin scored the first eight points of the third quarter to take a 41-13 lead.
The Lady Red Devils would not get closer than 27 points for the remainder of the game.
Ridings led Herrin with a game-high 19 points. Elders finished with 17.
Dowell and Torgesen paced Murphysboro with six points apiece, and Brewer finished with five points.
Torgesen had 13 points on Monday night when the Lady Red Devils knocked off fourth-seeded Johnston City, 43-31.
The game was tied 16-16 at halftime, but Murphysboro got hot in the third period and started to pull away.
With the score at 18-18, Dowell scored on a leaner at the 3:08 mark of the third quarter to give Murphysboro a 20-18 advantage. Halylie Hines followed with a 3-pointer to make it 23-18, and it was 23-20 with 90 seconds remaining in the third period.
But that three-point lead was stretched quickly by Murphysboro, which got two baskets from Alyssa Sturgeon, and a bucket from Christina Smith to grab a 29-21 lead heading into the final quarter of action.
Sturgeon kept the run going as she scored 14 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 31-21. Katelyn Kemp followed with a basket, and Sturgeon struck again with 5:50 remaining in the game to make it 35-21.
The Lady Red Devils would eventually build a 41-25 lead with 2:25 left in the game. But them made it interesting by struggling at the free-throw line down the stretch.
Johnston City began fouling with a little over two minutes left in the game, and Murphysboro made just 6-of-21 charity shots in the fourth period, including a 1-for-12 performance over the final 1:40.
But Johnston City wasn't able to capitalize on the misses, and the Red Devils advanced to take on Herrin, which brought Murphysboro's season to an end.
Herrin also brought to an end the first season as head coaches for Matt and Staci Hickam, who have a plan for getting the program, which hasn't had a winning season for about 25 or 26 years, back on its feet.
"We've said all along that when we started this season that it was going to be a process of learning and building,'' Matt Hickam said. "It's about fundamentals and working on our shots and it's about working on taking care of the basketball under pressure.
"It's about the basic fundamentals. When it comes down to it, especially in girls basketball, the teams that can just execute the basics are the teams that have the most success."