“Defense can show up every night, while offense comes and goes.”

That’s how Xavier Coach Tom Lilly summed up his team’s performance after the fifth-ranked Saints put a stranglehold on Prairie for much of Friday night’s contest between Mississippi Division foes at Xavier.

It’s a philosophy he’s banking on as his team sprints into the postseason tournament next week.

Xavier punctuated its solid regular-season resume with a convincing 56-29 home win over the Hawks, balancing the season ledger between the two teams.

In their first meeting on Jan. 14, Prairie’s Courteney McCrary scored a last-minute floater to give the Hawks a two-point win. Since then the teams have experienced a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

Riding high in late January after eight consecutive wins, the 12th-ranked Hawks (11-9, 8-8) ran into a slew of tough teams and finished the regular season with six straight losses, while Xavier (16-5, 11-5) has triumphed in five of its last six outings. Its only loss was to No. 1 Iowa City West.

The Saints and Hawks both started Friday’s game in defensive lock-down mode, holding each other to three field goals apiece in the first period.

Xavier added height and depth to its defense to take control in the second period, dishing the ball freely to 6-foot-2 post Alex Bartz under the basket. Bartz scored five field goals and five of her teammates added points to outscore the Hawks 24-12 in the period.

The Saints were up 33-18 at the break.

“We worked a lot on high to low post but we also worked a lot on defense and defending the outside shooters because we know they’re a really good outside shooting team,” Bartz said of her team’s effort.

Upstart Prairie scored the first seven points of the second half and cut the lead to eight midway through the third period, but never got closer.

With a constant supply of fresh bodies on the floor, the Saints charged ahead with 15 fourth-quarter points. Prairie’s weary-looking squad didn’t muster a single bucket in the final period.

“In the fourth quarter, maybe conditioning and the amount of kids that we play was a factor,” Lilly said.

“Prairie expended a lot of energy both on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor with a short-handed team. We’ve been stringing in about 12 players. Some don’t have many minutes, but they came in and contributed.”

Xavier got points from 10 players and came close to achieving Lilly’s season-long goal of getting three players scoring in double figures. Bartz led the team with 12 points and six rebounds. Emily Walvoord added 10 points and Katlyn Andersen had nine.

The Hawks were led by McCrary with 12 points and five rebounds.

In spite of its roller-coaster season, Prairie finished the regular season with seven more wins than last year.

PRAIRIE (29): Kaitlyn Yanacek 2 0-0 4, Cyerra Hutchins 0 0-0 0, Alisa Weiland 1 0-0 3, Courteney McCrary 4 2-2 12, Madison Dellamuth 2 2-2 6, Emilie Rotter 2 0-1 4, Haley Meyer 0 0-0 0, Taylor Sanders 0 0-0 0, Abby Ganske 0 0-0 0, Marisa Adams 0 0-0 0, Josie Wagner 0 0-0 0, Allison Neuhaus 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 4-5 29.

XAVIER (56): Kayla Armstrong 3 0-0 6, Annie Dale 3 0-0 7, Katlyn Anderson 4 0-0 9, Emily Walvoord 5 0-0 10, Alex Bartz 5 2-2 12, Nicole Noonan 0 0-0 0, Ashley Stulken 0 0-0 0, Sarah Dickes 1 0-0 3, Lisa Boomgarden 0 0-0 0, Katelyn Winker 0 0-0 0, Maddie Bertsch 1 0-0 3, Hayley Deutmeyer 1 0-0 2, Morgan Breitbach 1 0-0 2, Lizzy Bailey 0 0-0 0, Allison Chorzempa 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 2-2 56.

Halftime – Xavier 33, Prairie 18. 3-point goals – Prairie 3 (McCrary 2, Weiland 1), Xavier 4 (Andersen 1, Dale 1, Dickes 1, Bertsch 1).