When the Dixon and Byron girls face off, it usually goes down to the wire. Saturday in Byron was no different.

The Duchesses erased a five-point deficit in the final minute of regulation, but the Tigers pulled out a 46-43 victory in overtime to knock Dixon from the ranks of undefeated in the Big Northern Conference.

“Luke [Ravlin] does such a great job with his [Dixon] kids, they’re so well-coached. We’ve played this same game you saw today probably five times over the last 5 years, and we’ve had a couple of overtimes here where we’ve been fortunate to get on the winning end of it,” Byron coach Eric Yerly said. “You have two good programs that battle it out, and the first team that gets to 40 usually wins these games.”

Defense dominated the early stages, as Byron (20-2, 6-0 BNC) led 8-5 after one quarter and 18-16 at halftime. Dixon (20-3, 2-1 BNC) jumped out to a 25-19 lead in the third quarter thanks to putbacks by Ahmyrie McGowan and Addy Lohse and a 3-pointer from Morgan Hargrave, but Malia Morton’s basket cut the Byron deficit to 25-23 heading into the fourth.

Alya Roschi’s jumper and back-to-back drives to the basket by Morton – the second one a three-point play – put Byron up 34-30 with 3:40 to go. Dixon answered with a Reese Dambman basket, but another Morton bucket and two free throws by Aubrie Fuller made it 38-33 Tigers with 1:09 to play.

“It boosts our confidence a lot, just really helps out knowing that no matter who’s on the court, anyone can score, make a play on either end, and it helps in the long run,” said Morton, who had 20 points and eight rebounds. “The key was our defense, because they were really aggressive attacking the basket, so our goal was to slow them down, but also attack on offense at the same time.”

Dambman, who missed about eight minutes of the second half with four fouls, stepped around a McGowan screen and nailed a deep 3, then Kiley Gaither nabbed a steal on the other end. On the ensuing possession, McGowan backed down her defender and hit a turnaround in the post to tie the game at 38 with 19 seconds left, and Gaither forced another Byron turnover as time expired.

“We had some good opportunities and it didn’t turn out for us. I’m proud of how hard the kids fought and that they kept fighting until the end,” Ravlin said.

The Tigers got back-to-back baskets by Morton to open overtime, but McGowan got a putback, then found a cutting Hargrave for a layup to tie the game at 42 with 1:49 to play.\

Groharing drove for a layup and a 45-43 lead with 48 seconds to go, and Roschi nabbed a steal on the next Dixon possession. Morton hit a free throw for a three-point lead with 5.2 seconds to go, then the Duchesses committed another turnover on an inbounds pass near midcourt to end the comeback bid.

“I told the kids after that fourth quarter that we need to reset, and we did a nice job doing that because we came out and scored the first four points in overtime. When you get up four in overtime without the shot clock, you can kind of stall a little bit and it kind of gets them scrambling a little bit,” Yerly said. “We made some plays when we needed them down the stretch. It was a good game by both teams, and they’re poised for a strong postseason run and so are we, so these games make you better.”

Groharing was held mostly in check by Hargrave’s sticky defense, but she still finished with nine points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Her teammates picked up the slack; in addition to Morton’s game-high 20, Brynn Green had nine points, two assists and two steals, and Fuller finished with six points for Byron.

“That’s credit to Morton and their other kids for being able to pick it up enough to get the W. That’s a good team right there, and so we’ll try to learn from it and move on,” Ravlin said. “Games like this definitely kind of build you up and get you ready for the postseason.”

McGowan had a double-double with 15 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks, and Hargrave had eight points, five rebounds and five steals for Dixon. Lohse added 10 points, Dambman scored all six of her points in the fourth quarter and added two steals, while Grace Ackert scored four points, and Gaither finished with five rebounds, four steals and two blocks.