The situation begged for senior leadership and — on the Richland Center girls basketball team — there was only one place to turn Monday.

And Dani Templin — her team's lone senior — delivered.

The guard converted a three-point play with 48.4 seconds left to  give the Hornets a four-point lead and help them withstand Belleville 46-43 in a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Coaches Classic thriller at the University of Wisconsin Field House.

"Coach (Steve) Board drew the play up and I was thinking 'Score, score, score,' " said Templin, who took a pass in the low post and got the hoop and the foul. "That's what we needed to do."

The Hornets (2-3) fell behind 38-34 after Belleville's Jessica O'Connor scored six straight points at the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

Templin halted the run with a 3-pointer with 5:24 to play and Richland Center battled back to tie the game at 40 on a second-chance basket by freshman guard Abby Beranek.

"These situations for a team like this are crucial," said Board, whose team starts three sophomores and a freshman around Templin. "To have those scoring situations at the end of a game. When to foul. What's the score? Is it one possession? Two possessions? Who do we have to guard? Identify shooters. Obviously, it's a lot funner to learn those things when you win."

And credit goes to Templin, who hit the front end of the bonus with 1:11 to play to give the Hornets their first lead since late in the third quarter. After a turnover, Templin had the ball in her hands again and her three-point play gave her team enough cushion to withstand a 3-pointer from O'Conner with 29.1 seconds left.

"She's a good ballplayer,'' Belleville coach Chad Hodgson said of Templin, who was 8-for-10 at the foul line and scored 17 points. "On that (last) one, we just didn't get a double(-team) on her quick enough and she's going to finish that shot and she did.''