ST. PETER — The No. 4 Marshall girls basketball team avenged their last-second regular-season loss to Jordan with a 39-38 win at the buzzer over the top-seeded Jaguars in the Section 2AAA semifinals.

Jordan led 38-31 with under five minutes to play when the Tigers took over.

The Tigers trailed by 1 point with under 10 seconds remaining when they were able to force a jump ball under their own basket. Yet, an inbound violation prevented the Tigers from capitalizing and gave Jordan the ball back. With 6.6 seconds to play, Randi Wendorff came up big in the clutch by intercepting the inbound pass. She quickly turned and passed the ball to Bri Simpson for a fastbreak layup to give Marshall its first lead of the game, 39-38, with 2.3 seconds remaining.

“”Our kids battled hard all the way until the end. Our defense was the key again. Both in the full-court and the half-court,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “It’s not always going to be pretty and that certainly was the case for us on the offensive end tonight, but our defense decided the game. It was a great team effort.”

Bri Simpson initiated the Tigers’ game-sealing 8-0 run by driving to the paint for a layup. About 90 scoreless seconds later, Randi Wendorff converted a putback to make it a one-possession game.

After another scoreless minute passed, Taleigha Bigler stole the ball to set Brooke Andries up for a basket that put the Tigers within 1 point, 37-38.

Jordan had one last chance in the final seconds, but its halfcourt heave was no good and the Tigers held on.

Wendorff led the Tigers in efficiency, shooting 3-5 from the field to score 6 points, and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Her two assists were second to Bri Simpson’s three.

On the defensive end, Wendorff logged a block and a pair of steals, including the game-saver in the final seconds. Simpson and Bigler each also finished with a pair of steals.

Marshall got off to a slow start. They were held scoreless for the first four minutes and trailed 7-0 before a Leah Jones layup got them on the board. Still, the Tigers’ defense kept them in the game and brought Marshall back within 1 point in the first half before a Jordan 3-pointer made the score 21-17 at the break.

The Tigers had no scorers in double figures, but their well-rounded scoring approach may have worked to their advantage. Bigler and Simpson led Marshall with 7 points apiece while Wendorff and Leah Jones each added another 6.

Simpson was Marshall’s second-leading rebounder behind Wendorff, grabbing six boards on the night. Jones was right behind her with another five, including three on the offensive glass.

The semifinal matchup was a rematch of a game between the two teams on Feb. 14 when Jordan defeated Marshall 48-46 in overtime.

Jordan held a sizable advantage in 3-point shooting. They knocked down six 3-pointers in the game–four more than Marshall–on one more attempt. Yet, the Tigers outrebounded Jordan by a two-to-one margin, 32-16, to make up for shooting inefficiency.

Marshall (20-9) will face No. 3 St. Peter in the section championship game Thursday at 7 p.m. The Saints are 2-1 against the Tigers this year. They defeated the Tigers in the Big South Conference Championship on Feb. 25, 52-48, and took a triple-overtime victory, 78-75 over the Tigers on Feb. 3.

Marshall won the teams’ first meeting of the season, 51-47, on Jan. 13.

“Both teams are very familiar with one another,” Westby said. We have a lot of respect for St. Peter. They do things the right way. We’re happy about the fact that we get three days to prepare.”