LIMA — The first half of Thursday night’s Northwest Conference battle between the Jefferson Lady Wildcats and Lima Central Catholic Lady Thunderbirds was as sloppy as a 1-year-old eating his first birthday cake.

However, the second half was a little different — for the Lady Jeffcats, anyway — for it was a good night to have the name Miller; the Jefferson faithful simply call it “Miller Time.”

The trio of Kayla, Jessica and Jenna combined for 29 points and 20 rebounds as the Wildcats roared back to come away with a 49-40 victory.

Lindsey Shivley, who had to sit much of the first half in foul trouble, scored 11 of her 14 points in the third period. Jenna Miller came off the bench to tally 14.

“Jenna came in and really helped us tonight — she is a shooter and got us some points. Kayla (8 points, 10 boards) did a great job on the boards for us,” Jefferson coach Dave Hoffman began. “Lindsey had to spend some time on the bench in the first half due to foul trouble but picked it up in the third quarter. Jess (7 points, 6 rebounds) did a great job on the press for us as well.”

Tied at 19, Shivley started the second half and got right to work as she gave the guests the first basket of the half. Three ties and five lead changes later, the Lady Wildcats would take the lead for good — 27-26 — when she muscled her way to the hoop for a deuce.

Jefferson took its biggest advantage at 10 points on a Jenna Miller basket, making it 43-33 with 3:17 to go in the contest. The hosts were able to get it down to five but Shivley connected again from the inside, drew the foul and completed the 3-point play with 1:11 left, making it a 47-38 score.

“We were able to limit them to one shot most of the night and that was our goal. I can’t saw enough about our bench play; I was just very pleased with the whole team effort,” Hoffman continued.

The lackluster first-half performance by the teams saw a combined 27 turnovers and a 15-for-41 shooting performance.

Jefferson (11-5, 6-2) recovered to shoot 11-of-21 in the second half and 19-of-41 for the contest, while their hosts took a step back, hitting just 9-of-27 in the final 16 minutes and ending the game 16-of-48.

LCC (9-7, 6-3) used a balanced attack with eight players reaching the scorebook, led by Mary Fisher (9), who drained three from long range.

The first quarter was a see-saw affair with the T-Birds on top 14-10 when the final horn sounded.

“They did a good job on the inside with Lindsey. Neither team was able to get any momentum in the first half or any consistency,” Hoffman said. “It went a long time in the first quarter before anybody even scored. Lucky for us we were able to come out on the road and hang around like we did.”

However, the ’Cats regained the advantage early in the second canto on a Jenna Miller 3-pointer. She would later tie the game at 17 with a steal and conversion, then finally tied it at 19 with two seconds left in the half when she hit both ends of a 1-and-1.

Jefferson was without some of its height in the first half and relied on its bench play with Shivley in foul trouble and Monica Gerdeman out with a knee injury.

“We started Courtney Jettinghoff tonight with Monica being injured and got some good quality minutes from her. Our bench players let us get through the times in the game that we needed to get through; they got us some quality minutes,” Hoffman added. “LCC has had some sickness, too. (LCC Coach) Bill (Taflinger’s) daughter is a very good player who has been sick too; we are just trying to get through from game to game and hopefully things will get going for us.”

In the junior varsity contest, the Thunderbirds held Stephanie Blockberger to just two points while outscoring the Jeffcats 9-1 in the final frame to come away with a 23-21 victory.

Seven LCC players reached the book. Jenna Miller led the Jeffcat effort with seven points. Jefferson is without the services of Mallorie Wilson, who is out for the year with an ACL injury.