Basehor ? Kansas City Ward coach Carrie Lally figured if you can’t beat ’em, you might as well bore ’em.

But even that didn’t work against Tonganoxie High on Friday night.

Despite Ward’s extreme stall offense, which chewed up minutes of the clock nearly every possession, Tongie still remained poised in a 24-15 victory to advance to the sub-state finals.

“I thought our kids did a really nice job,” Tongie coach Randy Kraft said. “We were very patient. We put pressure on them, and we weren’t going out to try to get steals and give them layups.”

While Lally’s tactic of sitting on the ball did slow the Tonganoxie offense, the plan ultimately failed because of the Chieftains’ quick start.

Tonganoxie scored on its first six possessions –with six points coming from Addie Heim — to take a 14-9 lead into the second quarter.

“As a team, we just tried to take advantage of every chance we got,” Heim said.

From there, it got ugly.

A layup by Heim contributed the only points of the second quarter; both teams combined for just eight possessions.

Tonganoxie High's Addie Heim, right, puts up a shot over Kansas City Ward's Clare Stump, left, and Katie Delich in the Chieftains' 24-15 victory. Tongie won the sub-state semifinal Friday at Basehor-Linwood.

Leading by seven at half, the Chieftains sat on their lead.

Somewhat frustrated by the slow style of play, Tongie was held scoreless for the next 12 minutes and 30 seconds, but K.C. Ward could do nothing to capitalize. In fact, the Cyclones managed just one basket of their own in that time-frame, a third-quarter layin by Clare Stump that cut the lead to five.

Elizabeth Baska broke the scoring drought for Tongie with a jumper, and Heim put the game away with consecutive and-one baskets as the Chieftains opened their biggest lead at 11.

“We didn’t expect them to come out like that,” Heim said. “One of our coaches actually said to take that as a compliment because that just proves that you’re a really strong offensive team, and they’re trying to take you out of your game. Fortunately, they didn’t do that.”

Heim led Tongie with 16 points, with Baska and Heather Deaver rounding out the scoring with four points each.

The Chieftains will face second-seeded Kansas City Sumner in today’s sub-state championship game.

6Sports video: Tonganoxie advance to sub-state finals

K.C. Sumner 59, De Soto 28

Sumner guard Marisah Henderson scored 34 points.

“That Henderson is every bit as good as advertised,” De Soto coach Dwight Spencer said. “Obviously, she’s going to be a great player.”

Henderson connected on four three-pointers on her way to 24 first-half points.

Senior Amy Petty led De Soto with 12 points, while Jackie Goleman added nine.

De Soto finished the season with a 14-7 record.