In by far the best game of the night at the Washington Tournament, Pacific held off Warrenton Monday to win 52-49 and advance to the semifinals.

The 4-5 matchup was the only game that had a margin of victory in single digits. The next closest game was decided by 29 points. 

Pacific (10-7) faces Washington Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., while Warrenton (10-2) plays St. Clair in the consolation semifinals Wednesday at 4 p.m. 

The Warriors were the aggressors early, as senior Jenny Jansen scored the first eight points of the game for her team. Warrenton led 13-5 after the first quarter.

“Man, they were aggressive with us defensively in the first quarter,” Pacific Head Josh Spuhl said. “Especially in the first quarter, we didn’t know how to react.”

Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams said that while his team started out strong, Pacific changed the game in the second quarter.

“We were able to hit some shots, we were able to get inside,” he said. “They made some nice adjustments and locked us down and we went cold.”

The Indians outscored the Warriors by five in the second quarter, as junior Devon Fleming scored nine of her team’s 18 points. 

“I told our girls going into the game, Pacific plays hard,” Williams said. “They just wanted it more than we did. We had that early lead and we kind of went stale.” 

Looking to keep his team’s momentum going into the second half, Spuhl gave a brief halftime speech and had his team back on the court warming up in less than five minutes. 

“I brought them into the locker room and said, ‘Nothing’s going to change. We’re going to keep playing.’ ” he said. “So I brought them out early to keep shooting. There was nothing to fix. We started playing better and we wanted to keep it going.”

The move paid off, as the Indians took control of the game in the third quarter. Freshman guard Maddie King’s bucket midway through the quarter gave Pacific the lead back for the first time since the first quarter. Outscoring Warrenton 19-7 in the third, Pacific took a nine-point advantage into the fourth quarter.

“We had that early lead and we kind of went stale,” Williams said. “Coming out of the third quarter, they really just separated the game and put it away.”

The Warriors didn’t go away, as a 3-pointer by junior Kaylee Anderson cut the deficit to five with 2:15 to play.

Four consecutive free throws by the Warriors made it a one-point game with 55 seconds left. 

After the last free throw, Pacific junior Caroline Rogers took the inbounds pass coast-to-coast for a layup to extend Pacific’s lead back to three.

Jansen’s jumper with 18 seconds left cut Pacific’s lead to one, but Fleming, who had missed her last three free-throw attempts, knocked down two at the end to help the Indians seal the game. 

“Devon had some hiccups, but she hit the two at the end that really counted,” Spuhl said. “I think that’s huge for her. We got up by 11 and let them back. We can’t do that.”

Rogers led Pacific in scoring with 17, while Fleming had 16.

Junior Kyndra Morgan scored 10 and took on the task of guarding Jansen in the second half.

Freshman Maddie King scored six for the Lady Indians, while freshman Grace Burrows had three. 

Spuhl said his team is excited to face Washington, the No. 1 seed of the tournament.

“We’re going to have to guard ‘team catch-and-release,’ ” Spuhl said. 

“That’s what I call them. They’re all going to shoot. Fischer’s got them playing really well. We said coming into the tournament that’s our goal, we want to play Washington. We want to play the best team in the tournament. We’re going to do our best and come after them.”

Jansen led Warrenton with 24 points. 

Anderson was second with eight.

Sophomore Ashtyn Dixon scored six for the Lady Indians.

Kayla Nelson, Allyson Haller and Rylie Cox — all sophomores — scored five, four and two points, respectively. 

Williams said his team didn’t bring the energy it needed to beat Pacific.

“We had a lot of silly turnovers and we kind of forced things,” he said. “We just didn’t play our best game. I give them credit for that, they got up and challenged us. I really think they just wanted it more, and they were able to hit some shots.”

Kaylee Anderson defends a Pacific guard Monday.