Underwood girls basketball coach Toni Cottingham has been waiting for her team to put together a complete contest.

What a better time to start than the postseason?

The Comets bent a little, but they managed to regroup against the New Salem-Almont Holsteins during the quarterfinals of the Region 5 tournament. Underwood booked a 54-46 victory over the Holsteins at the Mandan High School gym and avenged a loss from the regular season.

The Comets (15-8) advance to tonights semifinals against the Shiloh Skyhawks. NS-A, meanwhile, ended its season at 16-6.

I have a great bunch of leaders on the floor who have been here before and are very talented, Cottingham said. They needed to keep their focus for an entire four quarters. In that fourth quarter, we had a little bit of a break down. Playing with an eight- or a 10-point lead, we have a tendency to get more conservative. Im happy with the way we bounced back from that. The girls understand its do or die right now.

Each time the Holsteins tried to rally, Underwood came up with an answer to stop them. NS-A knotted the score at 29 with 2:53 to play in the third quarter. The Comets rattled off a 14-4 spurt, closed by Charley Aucks three-point play with 7:19 to go that gave the Comets a 43-33 lead.

Turnovers and an 0-of-4 effort from the foul line led to another NS-A comeback. Karlie Schroeders layup in transition helped narrow the deficit to 43-40 with 4:56 to go, but Underwood answered with a quick 7-0 spurt to up its lead to 50-40 with 2:33 to play.

The Comets closed the contest by hitting 4 of 6 attempts from the foul line.

Its good we knocked down those free throws at the end or it would have been closer than we liked, Underwood guard Abby Landenberger said. As the season has gone one weve gotten more confident (with closing out games). Before, we would get so nervous and mess up. Were starting to get the hang of it and to keep pushing.

Landenberger led the Comets with 15 points while Auck added 14 while snagging 12 rebounds.

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Comets turn the tables on Holsteins