Captain Shreve’s Kennedi Henro drives to the basket in the championship game of the Doc Edwards Basketball Tournament.

The Red River Lady Bulldogs exploded with a barrage of 3-pointers in the second half to erase a halftime deficit and topple Captain Shreve 79-69 in the girls’ championship game of the 2016 WK “Doc” Edwards Invitational.

It was the second consecutive “Doc” title for the Lady Bulldogs (14-7).

“This was a great win for us and what we needed going into district play,” Red River coach Jamie Antilley said. “All I heard before today was how good Captain Shreve was and they are a tremendous team. They are a lot like us in that they like to take it to the goal.”

The lead see-sawed throughout the first half until successive technical fouls were called on Antilley and senior Lakeya Lewis. The Lady Gators went from trailing 30-29 to leading 38-32 after the ensuing free throws and possessions.

But Oksanna Williams (2), Danielle Burton, Morgyn Payne canned treys, while Lewis scored on three consecutive trips down the court in the fourth quarter for the Lady Bulldogs. Red River defeated Southwood Thursday night to get to the championship tilt, while Shreve (15-3) topped Pineville.

“We started out average and I got down on myself, but my coaches told me to get my head up. I did, and was able to push my teammates,” said Williams, who was named the tournament most valuable player. “Defense. We’ve been playing real hard on defense.”

The game was played in the Centenary Gold Dome in front of more than 1,000 area basketball fans.

The Lady Gators controlled the latter part of the first half thanks to the shooting of DeZyre Black (22 points), Aaliyah Stevenson (16) and Kennedi Heard (12). The game was tied 10 times in the half, however. The game seemed to turn in Shreve’s favor following the technicals, but it changed again after intermission.

“We talked about it in the dressing room that we all needed to step up,” Antilley said. “We had to do it ourselves, but we are starting to gel together.”

Red River took the lead for good midway through the third quarter on a pair of free throws by Payne. That sparked a 10-1 run by the Lady Bulldogs that gave them the distance they needed.

“We have more than one leader on this team, so we can depend on multiple people,” Antilley said. “We even had a senior looking up to a freshman this week in practice.”

The all-tournament team included Black and Stevenson of Shreve, plus Makayia Hallmon, Payne and Williams, who led all scorers with 30 points, of Red River.

Twitter: @JimmyWatson6