Hall-Dale’s Lucy Gray high fives head coach Laurie Rowe after the Bulldogs beat Poland 64-58 in a Class C South quarterfinal on Tuesday in Augusta. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

AUGUSTA — The Hall-Dale girls basketball team’s regional title defense almost came to a stretching halt.

The top-seeded Bulldogs and No. 9 Poland were tied at the half in their Class C South quarterfinal, before Hall-Dale took the lead in the third quarter and held on for a 64-58 win on Tuesday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

“Yeah, definitely a lot of pressure coming in and a lot of pressure after losing states,” Hall-Dale’s Jade Graham said. “We really want to be back there and we really want to win. So, really taking that and just pushing it to make us better and pushing ourselves in practice every day and in games when we don’t want to get back on defense, or we don’t want to do something, really pushing ourselves because we know we can do it and we know we’re one of the best teams, and we just need to prove that to people.”

Hall-Dale (16-3) advances to face No. 4 Winthrop in the semifinals at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center.

Bulldogs coach Laurie Rowe said getting a challenge early in the tournament will help in later rounds.

“It’s nice to have a tough game here under our belt and know that we can do it,” Rowe said. “So it will give us a lot of confidence moving forward in the playoffs.”

How did Hall-Dale win?

• The Bulldogs went 21 for 25 from the foul line, while the Knights (13-7) didn’t get to the foul line once.

“We’ve been practicing a lot of foul shots in practice because we know how important they are, and we went, I think it was (21-for-25) today,” Rowe said. “So, that was super key for us.”

• Poland did well behind the 3-point line, going 10 for 21, while Hall-Dale was 5 for 17.

• Hall-Dale’s Torie Tibbetts said the Bulldogs did a good job of rebounding in the third quarter, which helped them take a 43-37 lead into the fourth, the biggest lead of the game at that point. Hall-Dale outrebounded Poland 26-13 for the game.

They said it

• “I mean, dude, I swear they couldn’t miss. They were so good at shooting from the outside. They came out hot, and we didn’t really expect that.” — Torie Tibbetts

• “Definitely the turnovers; we made a lot of passes that we don’t usually make. It was mostly the nerves, but really cleaning that up, moving the ball — we didn’t really move the ball much in the first half. It was kind of first shot, done, call it, get back on (defense). But in the second half, we were moving it, we were getting those open shots, wide-open layups, and when our shooters were shooting, we were rebounding very well and putting it back up and making our foul shots in the long run, (that) was really what got it for us.” — Jade Graham

• “They did a really nice job, they hit a lot of shots, and some balls didn’t really go our way, and that’s kind of how things play out sometimes.” — Poland coach Jake Webb

Statistical leaders

 Poland: Charlotte Grenier (17 points, six assists), Lise Poublan (10 points)

Hall-Dale: Tibbetts (18 points, nine rebounds), Graham (17 points, eight rebounds, five assists), Sierra Gibbons (13 points, three steals)