Dakota 46, Stockton 38: The Dakota girls basketball team’s offense was struggling.

The Indians had scored just 11 points in the second and third quarter combined and trailed Stockton by one heading into the fourth quarter of the Class 1A River Ridge Sectional final Thursday.

But No. 4 Dakota came alive in the final quarter, outscoring the Blackhawks 22-13 in the fourth quarter to win 46-38 and advance to the Elgin Supersectional against No. 5 Hinckley Big Rock on Monday.

The Indians opened strong, taking a 13-4 lead in the first quarter on three 3-pointers by Alexys Cleaver, but Stockton’s defense clamped down from there.

Stockton scored the last five points of the first and outscored the Indians 6-1 in the second to take a one-point halftime lead. The Indians’ only point came when point guard Erika Lawson split a pair of free throws with 3:54 left in the half. The Indians had five turnovers and no field goals in the quarter.

“It started when we missed a couple easy shots,” Dakota coach Kevin Cline said. “Then what happens is you start pressing a little bit, you try to make things happen. We made three or four passes that we never should have thrown, going for the home run ball instead of making sure we came down and got a good shot.”

Even with the disastrous offensive showing in the second quarter, Dakota’s defense kept the Indians in the game. The Indians trailed by just one at halftime and after the third quarter.

“We felt fortunate as bad as we played in the second quarter to only be down a point,” Cline said. “I knew if we could just get to the fourth, we thought our conditioning would take them.”

The Blackhawks held their biggest advantage when Emily Korth hit a long jumper from the baseline to put the Blackhawks up 25-20. But the Indians scored the last four points of the quarter, which began a 17-4 decisive run that put them up eight with 1:38 to play.

- Jeremy Anders, GateHouse News Service