After a 34-34 halftime tie, the Bluejays outlasted the Bulldogs down the stretch.
When the Tabor women's team opened up a 10-2 lead in the first 3:23 following Thursday night's tip-off, the Bluejays seemed headed for an easy win.
But Thursday night's contest against the Bulldogs turned into a tough game, as McPherson rallied for a halftime tie and kept the pressure on throughout the second half of Tabor's 62-58 win.
After Emily Vogts pushed the Bluejay lead to eight points with a pair of foul shots at 16:37, McPherson guard Kirsten Ozbun brought the Bulldogs within a point of tying the game on a jump shot at 13:06.
The score was part of a 9-2 Bulldog run that Andrea Robinson snapped with a pair of 3-pointers 49 seconds apart.
Vogts followed up on those scores with 2-pointers at 10:43 and 9:18. The second of those scores gave Tabor a 22-16 lead and was set up by Stacie Herman, after Donya Anderson collected her 1000th career rebound.
But in the final minute of the half, McPherson scored five straight points to tie the game.
A slow start in the second half had Tabor trailing 39-34 at the 18:00 mark, but the Bluejays bounced back with an 11-2 run to wrest control of the game away from the Bulldogs.
The lead lasted until a 3-point play by McPherson guard Abby Suiter at 6:08 tied the game at 55-all.
McPherson led by a point at 3:46, but that deficit turned into a 59-58 Bluejay lead when Emily Vogts nailed a pair of free throws with 1:48 to go.
The Bulldogs scored zero points in the final 3:46 of the game, and Tabor put the game away shooting from the free throw line.
Vogts scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and the Bluejays were paced by Kirsten Watson, who scored 15 points. Anderson had 10 rebounds.
Coming-Tabor travels to Ottawa on Saturday to face the Braves in the second round of the KCAC post-season tournament. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
