RUSSIA — Anna has been dealing with periods of inconsistent play this year, and a lull near the end of a Shelby County Athletic League game on Thursday was almost costly.

But the Rockets held on to beat Russia 45-44 at Clair C. Naveau Gymnasium and improve to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in SCAL play.

Anna came out shooting in the third quarter and pushed a four-point lead to double digits. The Rockets led 39-27 before Russia battled back late in the fourth.

“The girls stayed with it,” Anna coach Randy Huber, who is in his second year, said. “We got that lead and took it a little too lightly for a bit, then we had to dig in. But the girls dug in and found a way to pull it out.”

The win was the fourth in a row for Anna, which opened the season with a double-digit win over New Knoxville before losing consecutive games to Fort Loramie and Versailles.

Anna is scheduled to play in New Bremen’s holiday tournament next week, starting with the host Cardinals on Wednesday.

Russia pulled within one point with under a minute left, then Anna senior guard Brenna Cobb split a pair of free throws to push the gap to 42-40.

Russia junior guard Addison Shappie hit a big 3-pointer during the Raiders’ run and tried for another with under 40 seconds left. But Anna freshman center Addison Bales blocked the shot, and senior guard Jenna Wolters grabbed the long rebound, drew a foul and made two free throws to increase the lead to four points.

Shappie hit a 3 with about two seconds left to cut the final gap to one.

Cobb is a three-year letterwinner and was a third team all-Southwest district selection in Division III last year. She is leading the team again; she scored 16 points on Thursday, seven of which came in the third quarter.

“Brenna is a different type of player,” Huber said. “You can count on her to make good decisions and hang onto the ball.”

Huber said junior guard Liz Staudter, a two-year letterwinner, has been helping lead the squad. Staudter recently suffered an ankle injury and is expected to miss a couple of weeks.

Huber said he was happy how the team played without Staudter on Thursday. Aside from Cobb and Staudter, Wolters is a multiple-year letterwinner, as is junior Makenna Pettus and senior Zandria Platfoot. Sophomore Ava Reed earned a letter as a freshman; she scored nine points on Thursday.

Bales, who is 6-3, has been seeing more playing time as the year has progressed.

“We’ve been working her in, and maybe offensively she’s not quite there for the varsity game yet, but defensively, she just causes some havoc,” Huber said. “You have to shoot around her, you have to shoot over her. You have to do something. She’s making a name for herself, and it’s great to see her fitting in.”

Bales contributed to early offensive struggles for Russia. The Rockets built a 14-3 lead by the end of the first quarter, but Shappie scored five points in the second and Russia senior center Roni Poling scored four to help lead an 11-4 scoring edge to cut the gap to 18-14 at halftime.

But Reed and Cobb each hit jumpers during a 17-10 scoring edge for Anna in the third to help push the lead to 35-24 heading into the fourth.

The Raiders didn’t give up. Poling scored seven points in the fourth, Celeste Borchers scored six and Shappie scored seven to help the squad rally.

“We’ve got to do a better job of coming out ready to play right from the start,” Russia first-year coach Michael Bashore said. “We dig our own graves a lot of times. But the effort’s there. They don’t quit. You ask them to play hard, they play hard.

“This was a good fight against a basketball team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. But we had 26 turnovers, and you’re not going to win a lot of basketball games when you turn the ball over 26 times.

“There are things that are fixable. We’ve got to be able to take the other team’s first punch and be able to hang and not have to dig ourselves out of a hole.”

Poling, who is the lone returnee on the court for Russia, scored a team-high 18 points.

“She’s doing well, and is getting better as a lot of teams start to dig down on her with two or three people,” Bashore said. “She did exceptionally well, finishing with 18 while playing through double teams a lot. She’s getting better at learning how to play when people are focusing on her.”

Shappie finished with 12 points and freshman Hazel Franics added eight.

Russia (4-5, 3-2 SCAL) is scheduled to travel to New Bremen on Saturday. The squad will then have 12 days off before traveling to Fort Loramie on Jan. 4.

Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.