Through the first six minutes Tuesday night, the Douglas girls' basketball team's defense controlled the game.
For the last half, it was Galena's defense that stepped up in a big way.
Galena allowed just seven points through the final two quarters on its way to a 36-23 win in Minden.
"Give them credit," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "They did a really good job defensively. We're still trying to create our offense with our defense, but do that we actually have to score to get in the defensive sets we want to be in.
"We weren't scoring so it went from there."
Galena's effort on the defensive end took the shine off of what was otherwise an outstanding defensive effort for Douglas.
The Tigers shut the Grizzlies out through the first six minutes and held them to just 10 first-half points.
"We played maybe our best game of the year defensively," Christen said. "They are a very talented team that can put up some points. If you would've told me heading into tonight that we were going to hold them to 36 points, I would've said we were going to win.
"We did a great job on defense, but unfortunately they did an outstanding job on defense."
Douglas built a 7-0 lead on baskets from Jessica Waggoner and Danyelle Heidt and free throws from Waggoner and Bridget Maestretti.
Galena fought back in the last two minutes of the quarter with baskets from Langley Iveson and Colleen Kern to cut the lead to 7-4.
Christen went with a smaller, quicker lineup to open the second quarter, sending Maestretti, Ally Freitas, Sarah Hartley, Taryn Williams and Nicole Didero to the floor.
The move paid immediate dividends as Douglas extended its lead to 14-6 with a 7-2 run over the first two minutes.
Williams and Freitas each had a basket and Hartley hit a 3-pointer to force a Galena timeout with 5:50 left in the half.
For the next five minutes, the teams took turns flexing their respective defensive muscle as Galena managed two baskets through the end the of the half while Douglas was held scoreless until just before the buzzer.
Maestretti ducked out of a double-team with less than five seconds left and sent the ball in to a wide-open Gina Pfaffenberger, made an easy shot under the rim to put Douglas up 16-10 heading into the locker room.
"We missed a couple of good chances in there to extend the lead," Christen said. "We missed a couple of easy shots."
Galena put together a 10-2 run out of the locker room to take a 20-18 lead, but Williams tied the game back up for Douglas with 3:20 left in the third quarter.
The Tigers managed just three more points in the game as Galena went on a 16-1 run over the next eight minutes to seal the win.
"They (Galena) didn't do anything different from what we expected them to do," Christen said. "They really just did a good job of shutting us down on the half side."
Galena also limited the Tigers' top scorers, holding Waggoner to eight points and Maestretti to just one.
Williams finished with four, Heidt and Hartley each had three and Pfaffenberger and Freitas each had two.
Iveson led Galena with nine points.
Douglas hosts Lowry at 7 p.m. Friday.
