For most of the night, it appeared the Edgewood girls basketball team was going to have smooth sailing in its Southwest Ohio Conference tilt with Ross.

Using a smothering defense, the Cougars forced the Rams into 3-for-20 shooting in the first half in building a 20-point lead that stood at 19 heading into the fourth quarter.

However, the Rams came charging back.

Ross put 24 points on the board in the final quarter, but it was not enough as Edgewood improved to 7-8 overall and 4-5 in the SWOC with a 56-48 win.

Ross turned up the heat in the fourth quarter, forcing the Cougars into nine turnovers, turning them into points behind timely 3-point shooting by Sam Madden (24 points) and Hayley Hudson (8 points) to trim the deficit to 49-41 with 1:54 left in the contest.

Edgewood, however, closed the game out from the line as Jenna Brown hit five of six free throws in the final 40 seconds to ice the win.

The Rams (7-8, 2-7) got an early basket by Madden to tie the score at 3-3, but the Cougars went on a 10-2 run to close the first period behind the duo of Haley Rutherford and Maura Hackney.

Hackney, a 6-foot post player, had four rebounds, a blocked shot and drained a trey from the top of the key in the first quarter during the run.

The Cougar defense held the Rams to just 1-of-8 shooting in the second quarter as they built the lead to 20 at the break. Rutherford, who finished with 15 points, got the Cougars off and running in the second quarter with a 3-pointer to push the lead to 16-5 and the hosts closed the half with a 9-3 run for the 32-12 cushion.

Edgewood built the lead to 39-15 on another trey by Rutherford with 4:02 left in the third quarter, but the Rams closed the quarter on a mini-run fueled by Madden to cut the deficit to 43-24 heading into the final eight minutes.