Slow starts to games can doom some teams. Not St. Paul Central.

The Minutemen trailed White Bear Lake by six at halftime of the Class 4A, Section 4 championship game on Thursday night.

The second half was a different story.

Central came out shooting and clamped down on defense, outscoring the Bears by 12 en route to the 53-47 upset.

"They know how to fight back," Central coach Marta Waalen said. "I said (at halftime), 'We've been in this position before, you know what to do.' I told them all throughout the game that this was going to be a war."

Waalen is right, as the Minutemen (24-5) were down eight points at halftime in the section quarterfinals to Woodbury and faced a 20-point first-half deficit against Minneapolis Washburn earlier in the year.

Central is the team that's down, but never out, thanks to a stellar defense that only gave up 42.4 points per game heading into Thursday's showdown with White Bear Lake (25-4).

The Minutemen have been on a roll, having won 12 straight games. They are headed back to the state tournament for the second straight year.

A big key to Central's late-season run and section championship has been senior guard Jada Jones, who put up 17 points on Thursday against the Bears.

"I've just been working hard," Jones said. "Me and my team wanted to go to state, and if we wanted that we had to work hard. Hard work pays off, so now we're here."

Jones also posted 12 points in the quarterfinals against Woodbury and 14 points against Roseville. She's been the spark for Central that all good teams need at the end of the season and throughout the playoffs.

"Jada struggled shooting earlier in the year and a lot of our guards did," Waalen said. "They just kept at it and showed a lot of resilience and leadership. Jada never has a bad attitude, she's always working hard, and she just fought through it. She's been scoring well for us even before sections started."

The resilience of Central combined with a stout defense -- they Minutemen eight opponents to 35 points or less during the regular season -- was good enough to earn a ticket to the state tournament.

What does the team need to do to keep the good times rolling?

"Our defense is the top key of our game," Jones said. "That's how we win our games, because we're so much faster that a lot of teams and that's how we stop everyone."