By MATT GOLDBERG

Herald-Whig Sports Writer

JACKSONVILLE -- For the first time this season the final buzzer sounded and Quincy Notre Dame wasn't leading.

The Lady Raiders made sure that changed after the first overtime.

On the brink of elimination, QND outscored Highland 11-5 in the ensuing four-minute overtime to defeat the Lady Bulldogs 48-42 in front of 1,432 fans at the Class 3A Jacksonville Super-sectional at Illinois College.

The Lady Raiders survived a game that featured eight ties and nine lead changes, improving their record to 32-0 and advancing to their first state tournament since 1999.

"I'm so blessed that these kids will just dig down and find a way," QND coach Eric Orne said. "I'm so proud of them tonight. What a special moment for them to live a dream and go to the state tournament right now and take on one of the best programs in the state."

QND plays Chicago Marshall (24-7) at noon on Friday in the Class 3A semifinals at Redbird Arena in Normal.

Both teams had their chances to win the game in regulation.

QND took a 37-36 lead with 3 minutes, 14 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a Hilary Obert basket. Sohpomore Karlee Gengenbacher, who was the only Lady Raider to score in double figures, kicked the ball out to her teammate.

Only one point was scored during the remainder of regulation.

Highland's Katie Hempen missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2:29 left and Bunte did the same 1:10 later.

The Lady Bulldogs' (29-5) Jamie Kloss made a free throw to tie the game at 37 and missed the second -- which could have been the game winner -- with 44.2 seconds left in regulation.

QND ran the clock down to about three seconds and Chloe Barnes' shot from about seven feet away was off the mark -- sending the game into overtime tied at 37.

"You get to this point and you want to get there so bad," Orne said. "And you really want it so bad for your kids because they've worked so hard. It's the light at the end of the tunnel."

QND trailed 39-38 when Gengenbacher put back a teammate's miss to give the Lady Raiders the lead for good with 1:44 left in overtime.

"We finally got over the hump and then we knocked down free throws when we needed to," Orne said.

QND only made 2 of 4 free throws in the first three minutes of overtime. But they managed to make 7 of 8 attempts, outscoring Highland 7-3, in the final minute.

Sophomore point guard Leigh McLaughlin, who finished with seven points, lifted her team in overtime by making 5 of 6 free throws.

"We really deserved this," McLaughlin said. "We worked hard and we really wanted to finish this out. We weren't going to let this slip by. I think that kind of gave us some motivation to finish it."

Highland could have taken off with the game early. The Lady Bulldogs' had their largest lead of the game -- a six point advantage -- to end the opening quarter.

But Gengenbacher responded by scoring the first six points of the second quarter to tie the game at 13. She finished with a game-high 21 points.

"The big thing was we never gave up," McLaughlin said. "We stayed in it. We got down a couple times but we just picked each other up and finished really strong."

-- mgoldberg@whig.com/221-3367