Gladstone senior Lillie Johnson goes in for a layup. Daily Press File Photo

KINGSFORD — The second-ranked Gladstone girls presented themselves with a chance to play another day by the narrowest of margins here Wednesday night, squeezing past the fourth-ranked Kingsford Flivvers 42-41 in a Division 2 district semifinal.

Gladstone, which improved to 19-4, visits top-ranked Negaunee (22-1) tonight’s championship contest which tips off at 6. Kingsford finished 15-6.

Kingsford senior Cassie Olson concluded the scoring on an eight-foot set shot with 27 seconds left to play.

What made the difference at crunch time?

“Definitely having confidence in our team and what we did in practice,” Braves senior forward Lillie Johnson said. “Aubrie (Moore) is a great player and she’s only a sophomore. She’s real good on defense and when she’s hot, she’s dangerous.”

With 90 seconds remaining, Johnson went through the back door for a layup to put Gladstone up 42-39.

Moore tied the score at 39 on a layup with 3:16 left in the contest before the Braves regained the lead less than 50 seconds later.

“One thing is I’ve never questioned this team’s effort,” Kingsford coach Mike Cross said. “I’ve always been happy with their effort. Offensively, I couldn’t be happier. We didn’t really need to have Aubrie do too much. Tonight, I thought the other girls stepped up. We lost to them by 12, then by seven, and pushed them to the brink tonight. Alyvia Kowalski played a phenomenal second half.”

A buzzer-beating layup by sophomore Tiahna Reynolds gave Gladstone a 32-29 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Johnson then opened the fourth frame with a jumper from the boulevard for a 34-29 cushion.

A 20-foot jump shot by junior Alyvia Kowalski brought the Flivvers within 34-31 before Johnson drained a 20-foot jumper from the left wing to make it 37-31.

Moore sank a running 10-foot jumper to shave Kingsford’s deficit to 37-35.

Johnson, however, answered with a layup on a pass from sophomore Ella Bracket to put the Braves up by four points midway through the fourth.

Gladstone led 19-6 after the first quarter and increased their lead to 23-9 on a putback by junior Adele Ostlund early in the second, forcing the Flivvers to use a 30-second time-out.

They responded with a 9-0 run, climbing within 23-18 on a layup and free throw by Olson 33 seconds before halftime.

“When it was 23-9 we had a chance to put them away,” Braves’ coach Andy Cretens said. “When you let somebody hang around in March, anything can happen. For the most part we held our composure, but we got too comfortable and relaxed too much. Our offense was very disorganized. We weren’t executing or getting to our spots. We’ve got to get back to work and get ready for Round 2 with Negaunee.”

Johnson, who scored 12 points in the opening frame, finished with 20.

“We came ready to play, then we got too comfortable,” Johnson said. “We relaxed a little too early. We just need to come out and be ready to play Friday.”

Moore and Olson paced Kingsford with 11 points apiece. Sophomore Avery Edwards contributed 10 and Kowalski hit all nine of her points in the second half.

“I thought Avery did a real nice job on Lillie in the third quarter,” Cross said. “We felt really good going into the half down by five. Our defense was better and I thought we executed much better in the second half.”

The Flivvers committed just seven turnovers and the Braves finished with 16.

Gladstone 19 4 9 10 — 42

Kingsford 6 12 11 13 — 41

Gladstone — Blowers 6, Quigley 2, Bracket 8, Ostlund 2, Reynolds 4, Johnson 20. FT: 4-6; F: 7; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Johnson 2, Blowers, Bracket.

Kingsford — Moore 11, Kowalski 9, Edwards 10, Olson 11. FT: 1-4; F: 7; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Edwards 2, Moore, Kowalski.