CLARION — Stephanie McCall likes to joke the Moniteau girls basketball team means to do the things that make coach Matt Stebbins’ blood-pressure rise.

One minute, the Warriors built a 17-point lead and appeared set to run Brookville out of the gym Wednesday night at Clarion High School.

Later they found themselves locked in an intense battle, trying to hold on.

Moniteau persevered, picking up a 55-46 win over the Raiders in the first round of the District 9 Class AA playoffs.

“We always tell coach that we like to make things interesting,” said McCall, who recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. “In the end, we know we want to win, so we keep fighting.”

Stebbins was proud of how his team fought. It was the Warriors first playoff win since they beat Brookville 41-36 in the district semifinals Feb. 24, 2012.

“There could be a lot less stress in my life,” Stebbins joked. “The best thing is we got our first playoff win since I took over. The girls played well tonight.”

The fourth-seeded Warriors (15-8) set themselves up for a heavyweight bout in the semifinals against top seed Karns City at a date and site to be determined.

The Gremlins won both regular season matchups by scores of 52-4 and 47-31.

“We’re looking at it as a completely different game,” McCall said. “We’re forgetting about the other ones before. We believe we have a chance against them and want to prove to people we can compete with them.”

Moniteau had to dig in and compete with the feisty fifth-seeded Raiders (13-10).

Brookville’s run started after Kristina DeMatteis’ running layup with 5 minutes, 6 seconds remaining gave Moniteau a game-high 17 point lead, 44-27.

Thanks to nine fourth-quarter turnovers by the Warriors, the Raiders cut the lead down to three, 48-45, after Brenna Dworek made a floater with 50 seconds remaining.

Raiders coach Mark Powell said they wanted to press more, but couldn’t when Elaina Powell was on the floor due to her knee issues.

“One thing we noticed on film was they didn’t seem to handle the pressure well,” Powell said. “When we pressured them late in the game, they turned it over like we thought.”

Sara Hull helped Moniteau gain the separation it needed.

After making the front end of a one-and-one, she collected her rebound on the miss and was fouled again.

She made both free throws to put the Warriors ahead 50-45 with 35.4 seconds remaining.

“I just wanted to get the rebound and get the second basket,” said Hull, who finished with 11 points. “At least I got fouled.”

Brookville also applied pressure at the game’s outset, starting on a 12-3 run. Dworek, who score a game-high 19 points, scored eight of the Raiders’ first-quarter points.

Alazia Greaves made a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in the first quarter for Moniteau’s first field goal and cut the lead to 12-6.

The Warriors shot 1-of-8 from the field in the first quarter.

“We just had to keep moving the ball around and get it in for the open shot,” Hull said.

Once the Warriors got DeMatteis going in the second quarter, they surged ahead 27-18 by halftime.

DeMatteis, who led Moniteau with 18 points and added eight rebounds, scored seven points in the second quarter.

“We got things going on inside,” Stebbins said. “Then Alazia hit two big threes. That spread them out a little bit more.”

BROOKVILLE 46

Amanda Ray 2 0-0 4, Brenna Dworek 8 1-4 19, Sam Reinard 1 1-2 3, Hali Olson 4 1-3 9, Elaina Powell 1 0-0 2, Brooke Shattenburg 3 0-0 6, MacKenzie Ganoe 1 0-0 3, Abby Blochberger 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 3-9 46.

MONITEAU 55

Kristina DeMatteis 8 2-4 18, Alazia Greaves 2 0-0 6, Alycia Brehm 1 1-1 3, Stephanie McCall 8 1-2 17, Sara Hull 3 5-10 11, Emma Bair 0-0 0, Alyssa Dailey 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 8-16 55.

Brookville 12 6 7 21 — 46

Moniteau6 21 12 15 — 55

3-point goals: Brookville 3 (Dworek 2, Ganoe); Moniteau

Next: Moniteau vs. Karns City, site and time to be determined