DELPHOS — With the way the Fort Jennings at Jefferson girls basketball game at Jefferson Senior High started Monday night, no one could have ever suspected the ending.

The visiting Lady Musketeers had the great start but needed an even better finish to subdue the Lady Wildcats 79-71 in overtime.

The ’Cats (6-13) — holding Parents’ Night in the home finale — trailed by as much as 17 late in the second quarter but used a furious rally and a buzzer-beating triple by sophomore Jenna Miller (career-high 29 markers, 4 steals) to force the extra session.

Alas for the hosts, they used up so much energy to get there, they had nothing left in the extra four minutes. Fort Jennings’ sophomore Stacie Chandler hit a deep 2 from the left wing 38 ticks in and that got it rolling. The Wildcats, committing eight miscues (36 total) and all six field-goal attempts (22-of-69 overall, 4-of-23 long range, for 31.9%). On the other end, the visitors scored the first nine in the OT before two free throws by Miller at 43.3 seconds broke the drought.

“We were clearly out of gas in the overtime. We were so frenetic in coming back — we had to make it that way — we had nothing left,” Jefferson coach Dave Hoffman acknowledged.

For Musketeer counterpart Matt Myerholtz, scoring first was the key.

“They had the momentum. Scoring first got the momentum back for us,” he said.

The hosts got the Big Mo in the fourth period. They trailed 56-46 to commence and a basket by senior Amanda Horstman (10 points, 8 boards) put the guests up 12. Jefferson’s full-court pressure defense continued to wreak havoc, forcing seven errors (32 overall). At the same time, the Musketeers began to misfire from the field (3-of-14; 27-of-64 overall, 2-of-10 treys, for 42.2%). This enabled the Red and Black to inexorably come back and Miller’s running trifecta from just right of the key with a second left tied it at 69.

“I’m sure many didn’t think we could come back from so far down. That was a positive,” Hoffman said. “We just upped the intensity the second half. I thought (freshman) Morgan (Fischbach; 9 markers before she fouled out) did a great job on (Katie) VonLehmden (18 counters, 14 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals), forcing her to give up the ball and making someone else handle it. We just didn’t shoot well enough; that has been a constant struggle because of our youth.”

Myerholtz was pleased his team bounced back quickly.

“When you only have three wins, it’s easy to drop your head and think ‘here we go again.’ I reminded them that they hit a 3 at the buzzer last year to go OT and we won that game,” Myerholtz explained. “Jefferson did a tremendous job with their pressure and we had to hang on. They got aggressive and that put us on our heels.”

The Musketeers (4-15) used their own full-court press (1-2-2) in the early going to take control. Senior Kayla Knippen (who eventually fouled out) scored six in the opener, as did Miller. Hoffman called two timeouts to get his team going but it seemed to no avail. Still, his team only trailed 19-12 on Fought’s deep 2 with 20 ticks on the clock.

Period 2 put the Jeffcats in a deeper hole. With Hoffman going to his second team, Fischbach netted seven but seven Musketeers got at least a point in the canto. Their lead was as much as 39-22 on a 3-point play by freshman Kristina Clippinger with 1:04 left but a 6-0 mini-rally: 3s by Fought and Fischbach (13 ticks to go) got the hosts within 39-28.

“We’ve had a problem all year with putting four quarters together. Generally, we have one good half and one bad one,” Hoffman added. “We’re looking at everything as a learning time and the hope is we learned something tonight, like playing all 32 minutes. We missed a lot of bunnies; those add up.”

The hosts tried their comeback in the third stanza — getting the visitors in foul trouble in the process — and did get within 46-39 on a Miller 3-point play at 3:50. However, the Orange and Black put a halt to that with a 10-3 spurt. The ’Cats scored the last four in the last 11 ticks, including a layin by freshman Bridget Culp (6 thefts) with a second left, for a 56-46 scoreboard.

Both teams hit 23 free throws: Fort Jennings on 31 tries (74.2%) and the Jeffcats 33 (69.7%).

Fort Jennings nabbed 52 off the glass (21 offensive) as senior Jessica Ladd added seven (with 5 steals). They added 25 fouls and host Miller City 6 p.m. Friday.

Jefferson took in 44 caroms (21 offensive) as sophomore Emily VanGrootheest seized 11 and junior Ashley Watkins nine. They totaled 22 fouls and visit Crestview Thursday to finish the regular season.

The Fort Jennings junior varsity improved to 3-16 with a 21-16 victory over the Lady ’Cats (6-13).

Taylor Wallenhorst led the guests — and all scorers — with eight; Hope Bowman countered with six.