Until that fateful spurt Thursday at Target Center, Lakeville North, which had lost to Eastview twice during the regular season, had played the undefeated Lightning straight up, matching them basket for basket and controlling the paint.

The Panthers’ switching defenses didn’t allow the Lightning to find a rhythm on offense. Eastview turned its gaze outside and relied on the three-point shooting of Mariah Alipate and Andrea Abrams to stay close.

The duo combined to hit five three-pointers in the first half, making up for the lack of production from Star Tribune all-metro forward Megan Walstad, who spent the first half battling the strong defensive effort of Lakeville North’s Taylor Brown.

“Taylor played really good defense on me, but my teammates were knocking down shots, so I was really happy with how everyone else was playing,” Walstad said.

Walstad turned things around in the second half. She sparked the game-changing run with six consecutive points. Toss in a Walstad blocked shot on the defensive end of the court and Eastview had grabbed control of the game.

“We kind of ran out of steam a little bit,” Lakeville North coach Shelly Clemons said. “All of a sudden, the score was 37-31 and I could tell we were rattled. Things kind of unraveled from there.”

The rest of the Lightning followed Walstad’s lead. Freshman Cassidy Carson provided a energy off the bench. Point guard Emma Carpenter started finding driving lanes and scored six points as Lakeville North’s interior defense, watertight in the first half, turned leaky.

Eastview built the lead to 15 points and coasted home from there.

Abrams led Eastview with 16 points, Alipate added 14 and Walstad finished with 10. Lauren Jensen paced Lakeville North (25-6) with 20 points.