It was a sort of wake-up call for Batavia senior Ali Thomas.

With the Bulldogs trailing DeKalb early in the third quarter, the 6-foot forward was standing at mid-court with an inbounds pass incoming when coach Kevin Jensen yelled right at her.

“Ali, go be a senior captain and go get the ball,” he shouted.

And as soon as she heard that, she knew she had to lock in.

“It made me think that this could be my last time, and I’m going to show them that I deserve to be on this court for one more game,” Thomas said. “And thank God that he said that, because it made me realize what I needed to do.”

Thomas would go on to drop 10 of her team-high 12 points in the second half to help the No. 6 Bulldogs avoid the upset from the No. 11 Barbs with a 39-37 victory Tuesday.

“She came up huge once again for us,” Jensen said. “Last year when she got in the starting lineup, she wasn’t expected to score, just defend and rebound, and she knew that spot.

“But this year, it feels different when you’re a senior, and the only nerves she had was because she didn’t want it to be done. And she wanted that time to be back together with the team.”

The Bulldogs (10-21), who’re looking to extend their regional title streak to six, will go on to face No. 3 St. Charles East in a Class 4A regional final Thursday. The Saints took down No. 15 West Chicago 55-28, with senior Addie Schilb scoring 24 points, including her 1,000th career point.

“Going into the season, we wanted to get that goal of getting a regional title again,” Thomas said. “Going against the Saints, we’ve had a couple of tough games against them in the regular season, but the score has just gotten closer and closer. We know it’s our time though.”

Thomas hit the eventual go-ahead shots for the Bulldogs with 58.3 seconds remaining in the contest, sinking two free throws to make it 39-37.

“It being my potential last game of the year, I didn’t want it to end on free throws,” said Thomas, who was 0 for 4 at the charity stripe prior to her two makes. “It’s something that I worked everyday at practice on, spent countless hours on. I knew I got it, and I gave myself confidence, and it just pulled through.”

After entering the second half trailing 23-15, the Bulldogs turned their attention to a full-court press defense, relying especially on senior captains Eva Holzl (nine points) and Payton Haslett (eight points).

The plan worked, with the Bulldogs eventually turning the game to a 27-26 contest heading into the final stanza.

“We take on the personality of all of our captains,” Jensen said. “We just told them, ‘What do we have to lose?’ We were rewarded so much by being aggressive rather than waiting for things to happen. And those three played so hard and gave us what we needed.”

The Barbs (14-18) had a chance to tie the game up with a layup at the buzzer from Alicia Johnson. But with the buzzer ringing, the ball hit the front and the back of the rim before bouncing out and onto the floor, putting an end to the season.

“I thought that it was going in,” Barbs coach Brad Bjelk said. “That last shot doesn’t sum up the game though. There were plenty of opportunities that we could’ve capitalized on, especially in the smaller details. If we buttoned those details up, that last shot wouldn’t have been an issue.”

The Barbs did not go quietly throughout the entire game, using a 6-0 run at the end of the first half to take the largest lead for either team in the contest. DeKalb finished the game never trailing by more than four points.

“I don’t think anybody really took us that seriously as an 11-seed, but we knew what we could do,” Bjelk said. “We felt prepared and we did really well. We just had things fall apart for us in the end and couldn’t get those last couple of plays to go our way.”

Angela Gary led the Barbs with eight points and also added 11 rebounds, while Olivia Schermehorn added six points, six rebounds and five assists. All five starters for the Barbs were seniors who played in their final high school game.

“Angela’s had a couple of those over the past month, she’s been great,” Bjelk said. “These seniors left it all out on the floor, but I can’t speak enough about the types of mentors and teammates they were for the girls. That’s really the thing that means the most to me. They’ve left a great impact on our program.”