ELMORE — Elmwood needed to avenge an earlier season loss to Woodmore to stay in the hunt for a Northern Buckeye Conference title.

Thursday, the Royals got what they wanted, a 46-42 win over the Wildcats, avenging a 51-41 loss to Woodmore on Dec. 14.

Elmwood 6-foot senior wing Brooklyn Thrash scored a game-high 25 points with 12 rebounds and two assists.

“You know, I really loved my team tonight and we pushed through,” Thrash said.

Elmwood pushes ahead to 16-2 overall and 10-2 in the NBC, while Woodmore falls to 10-6 and 7-4.

“You know what — it is a win in the league. We still knocking on the door,” Elmwood coach Doug Reynolds said.

The Royals are trying to keep pace with Lake (12-4, 9-2) and Eastwood (11-5, 7-3). Elmwood got some help Thursday as Genoa defeated Lake, 52-49, and Fostoria beat Eastwood, 79-67, putting the Royals one-half game ahead of the Flyers.

The first half appeared to display two defenses who knew each other well as the Royals made only 4-of-20 field goals (20%) and the Wildcats hit only 4-of-24 (17%).

“Defensively, give those guys some credit. It was a pretty good defensive night. The second half it always seems like things loosen up a little bit from scoring in the first half,” Reynolds said.

Indeed, it did loosen up the final 16 minutes as the Royals shot 50% (11-for-22) from the floor, the Wildcats were 7-for-16 (44%). Elmwood finished 15-for-42 (36%), including 3-for-11 from downtown (27%).

Thrash hit two treys early in the game and had 12 points at halftime, but she struggled to score in the paint with Woodmore senior Sidney Wank and junior Jordan Beam draped all over her.

“Sidney Wank and Jordan Beam did a great job on Brooklyn,” Woodmore coach Kyle Clair said. “She’s a great player and she is going to get her points. We know that.”

Thrash added 13 points in the second half, but she became a facilitator, too, hitting the boards and dishing out key assists.

“When you have two or three girls on her, we were looking for other girls to step up,” Reynolds said.

“When the time was right, (junior forward) Anna Meyer hits a three, (junior wing) Cara Frank hits a couple twos, and things that are untold are maybe some of the rebounds that we did get,” Reynolds continued.

Frank had six points and six caroms and Meyer scored five points, but the Royals were outrebounded 33-24.

Even though Elmwood opened a nine-point lead, 32-23, entering the fourth, the Royals’ 6-0 junior post Anna Barber fouled out with 3:03 remaining and Meyer was whistled for her fifth personal with 1:46 remaining.

At that point, Thrash’s role became even more prominent, making 4-of-6 free throws down the stretch.

“I just had to depend on the other players to get me the ball,” Thrash said. “I just had to get down in the post and make my moves and try to get a foul so I can get a foul shot.”

Reynolds added, “She had to put the team on her back, and they had to feed off her, and she did that tonight. She had foul shots down the stretch. She’s just a good kid playing hard.”

However, it was Frank who may have saved the game, and she did it on the defensive end of the floor.

The Royals were leading 42-39 in the final minute when Frank took a charge as Wank drove into the key and appeared to have scored.

The officials waved off the basket, charged Wank with her third personal, and instead of Wank shooting the “and-one” to tie the game, Elmwood took possession with 53.1 seconds remaining still up by three.

Woodmore coach Kyle Clair loved his team’s second half effort, even through they trailed most of the game.

“That’s one of our greatest qualities — we are definitely not going to give up and I thought defensively we did a great job,” Clair said.

Offensively, Woodmore’s sparkplug was senior guard Sophie Blausey, who scored 21 points, hit two triples, grabbed six rebounds and had two steals.

However, Woodmore’s motus operandi has been its three-point shooting, and even though the Wildcats hit six triples as a team, shooting 28% percent (11-for-40) does not win basketball games.

“Offensively, we are not shooting the ball real well right now and we are not finishing well and it’s causing us to have to dig out of holes that maybe we should not be in,” Clair said.

“That’s the frustrating part — we are getting great looks. We shoot well in practice, and we get in a situation like this and through the last four or five games we’ve hurt ourselves because we are not shooting well. Offensively, we are struggling.”

For Elmwood, Barber left the game after scoring nine points, grabbing four rebounds and getting four steals and freshman Aubrey Johnson had one point, four rebounds, two assists, and three steals.

Frank and sophomore Kate Keiffer also had four caroms each for the Royals.

For the Wildcats, Wank had eight points and two steals and 6-1 senior post Camryn Ivy had seven points and four rebounds.

Woodmore junior point guard Macey Bauder had three points, six rebounds and three steals and Beam had three points and five rebounds.

The game saw 41 free throws shot, with Elmwood making 13-of-20 and Woodmore hitting on 14-of-21.