NEW ALBANY —  For 20 minutes on Tuesday night at Johnson Arena, the Floyd Central girls’ basketball team played its type of basketball, which was executing a half-court game and getting to the free-throw line.

But in the final 12 minutes, host Jeffersonville decided it was time to play its game.

The Red Devils stepped up their defensive pressure and converted several Highlander turnovers into easy baskets, resulting in a 56-45 victory.

“We upped our pressure and upped our intensity,” Jeff coach Matt Pait said. “In the second half, we played that way for 16 minutes and it really took a toll on them. I felt we took their guards out of what they wanted to do with our ball pressure. Our guards finished down the stretch and made free throws.”

Floyd Central built a 32-22 lead with about four minutes left in the third quarter. After leading 24-18 at halftime, the Highlanders (6-3, 1-2 Hoosier Hills Conference) started the second half with an 8-4 run.

But the Red Devils (5-5, 2-3) turned the tables in the latter part of the stanza. They closed out the quarter with a 12-2 run to tie the game at 34.

Jeff then began the fourth with a 10-2 spurt to take a 44-36 advantage. After Floyd Central made 3-of-4 free throws, the Red Devils answered with seven straight points to extend their lead to 51-39.

Three players helped turn up Jeff’s defensive pressure in Nycia Ford, Aurreeshae Hines and Taylor Hines. For the game, Ford made six steals and Aurreeshae Hines had four.

As for Taylor Hines, her primary responsibility was guarding Floyd Central guard Brooke Hinton, who tallied only nine points on 2-of-13 shooting.

“I thought both Hines [girls] played great — Taylor and Shae,” Pait said. “They played great on the ball. We asked Taylor to come in and guard Hinton and she did a good job on her. Nycia did a good job on [Madison Kaiser].”

Plus it did not hurt that Hinton was battling foul trouble. She picked up her fourth foul on a charging call with 2:45 left in the third. Hinton was on the bench for nearly 4 minutes and 45 seconds as Jeff pulled away from the Highlanders.

“They did a nice job pressuring us,” Floyd Central coach Kirk Hamsley said. “Our next guard didn’t handle their pressure very well and gave them some easy buckets. We got back on our heels a little bit. We just kept back-pedaling and that’s on me — that’s my fault.”

The Highlanders led by as many seven points in the first half. Free-throw shooting helped them build that lead as they were 6-of-7 from the stripe for the half.

But Floyd Central had its opportunity to get its six-point halftime lead into double digits, but could not make shots. The Highlanders were 9-of-23 from the field in the first half.

“Offensively, we didn’t do anything special,” Hamsley said. “We missed a lot of easy shots around the bucket early in the game. That could’ve put us up 15 to 18 points and we could’ve taken the game under control. Offensively, we struggled all night and we were not in our sets like we needed to be. We forced a lot of bad shots.”

The Red Devils were struggling just as bad in the opening half, as they were only 8-of-30 from the field. In the second quarter alone, Jeff scored six points and missed 13-of-16 field goals.

“Floyd is really good team and they took us out of what we wanted to do,” Pait said. “We weren’t being really fundamental and we weren’t playing defense the way we wanted to.”

Haley Vogen led the Red Devils with a game-high 17 points, shooting 7-of-13 from the field. Aurreeshae Hines chipped in 11 points, Ford had 10 and Taylor Hines scored nine.

“All in all, I’m pleased with our effort and I’m pleased with the defense we played in the second half. It was a really good win for us,” Pait said.

Tori Kingsley paced Floyd Central with 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Teammate Abbie Engle had 10 points and Madison Kaiser added nine.

Jeff will travel to Evansville Memorial on Saturday. Floyd Central will face Louisville Waggener in the first round of the Floyd Central Shootout on Thursday, Dec. 27.