Despite a sluggish first half and fourth-quarter comeback by its opponent, the Wright City girls basketball team picked up its first win of the season Tuesday, defeating Barat Academy on the road, 29-26.

"It feels good to get it early in the season so the girls don't have to wait so long to experience this," First-year Head Coach Ashley Moore said. "Now we have something positive to draw from going forward."

Trailing 13-4 at halftime, Barat's offense woke up in the second half and cut the Wildcats' lead to 27-26 with 2:34 left in the game.

With its lead shrinking midway through the fourth quarter, Barat picked up extra possessions after Wright City turnovers and missed shots.

"Part of that was us taking the ball to the basket and not having things go our way," Moore said of Barat's second-half run. "A few fouls didn't get called and we had some turnovers, too. Making transitions with different personnel is something we need to work on. Who is on the floor and what am I asking them to do?"

After seeing her team's lead shrink to one point, Wright City guard Melina Campbell answered with a jump shot to extend the lead to three.

Two possessions later, Campbell grabbed a defensive rebound that secured the win for the Wildcats.

Campbell was one of six Wright City players to score.

Lilly Sargent led the team with 12 points against the Barat zone defense.

"I'm much happier with our zone offense than anything else so far," Moore said. "The rotation that we had, especially toward the end of the first half, was good."

The Wildcats deployed a full-court zone press to begin the second half, which briefly flustered Barat.

"When we are in our spots that we need to be and we are rotating correctly, it can be pretty powerful for us," Moore said. "But it's something that we haven't really had the opportunity to put into use a whole lot."

Moore said she would like to see her players play better when things don't go immediately go their way offensively.

"Not everything is black and white and not everything is going to be in a perfect spot," she said. "We have to execute when not everything goes to plan."

Hannah Rodgers hit three jump shots and finished with six points in the win.

Jada Hunter added four, Aryan Reinhold finished with three, and Kia Campbell scored two.

The Wildcats are off until a Dec. 5 trip to Bowling Green.

"We have a week before our first game, so I'm really looking to solidifying our offense," Moore said. "We want to move the ball and get it moved quicker, and hopefully we can take this win and learn to build from it."