By Andy Walter

FELTON — The first half was a bit of a struggle for Woodbridge High.
By intermission, the Blue Raiders had netted just 19 points and trailed Lake Forest by 11.

But Woodbridge’s offensive issues weren’t anything that some defense couldn’t fix.

The ninth-seeded Blue Raiders turned up the pressure in the second half and turned it into a 47-43 victory over the No. 8 Spartans in the second round of the DIAA girls’ basketball state tournament on Friday night.

Playing in a packed Lake Forest gym, Woodbridge outscored the Spartans, 28-13, over the final two quarters as it avenged a loss to Lake two weeks ago.

The Blue Raiders (16-6) will now get a chance to avenge a 33-point loss to Caravel from earlier in the season when they play at the top-seeded Buccaneers on Monday at 7 p.m. It will be Woodbridge’s second-straight appearance in the state quarterfinals.

Junior guard Payton Keeler said it was the Blue Raiders’ energy that got them back in the game.

“Our defense especially,” she said. “Once you get so many steals it really changes the momentum of the game.

“In the first half, I think we kind of missed the mark there. Our energy was everything in the second half.”

“Defense really got us back in the game,” agreed junior guard De’Asya Jones.

“I don’t think anybody thought we could do it without the big three,” she said about getting back to the quarterfinals without last year’s three seniors. “We’re here.”

The Blue Raiders, who still trailed by seven going into the fourth quarter, didn’t take their first lead of the night until there was just 4:54 remaining. That’s when Keeler converted a three-point play to give Woodbridge a 38-35 advantage.

The Blue Raiders then went up as much as six only to have Henlopen South champion Lake Forest (17-5) cut the advantage to just 43-42 with 59 seconds still left.

But Kamryn Spence scored off a long pass from Reghan Robinson and Ke’ira Parker and Jones hit one free throw each to seal Woodbridge’s comeback victory.

“For the first three quarters we didn’t execute the game plan,” said Blue Raiders’ coach Isaiah Robinson. “But it was just trying to keep everybody going left and it worked in our favor.

“They didn’t give up and it was a fight to the finish. Lake Forest, that’s a fighting team, too. You can’t take anything from them.”

Keeler tallied 10 of her game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter as well as adding several steals. Jones scored 14 points to go along with some big defensive plays.

The Blue Raiders forced the Spartans into 16 second-half turnovers while allowing just three field goals over the final two quarters.

The Spartans, whose 58-48 win over the Blue Raiders on Feb. 22 was its first over Woodbridge since 2017, got 15 points from Gabrielle Almonte and 12 from fellow senior Karly Cain.

As for the Blue Raiders, they’d like to show Caravel that they’ve improved since they fell to the Bucs, 71-38, on Feb. 1. Woodbridge doesn’t have any seniors on its roster.

“I’m excited,” said Keeler. “I don’t think we played to our full potential maybe in the first game. Hopefully we do our best.”

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.