The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ basketball team will defend its Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools tournament championship on Monday.

The No. 2 Lady Saints earned the right on Sunday after dealing visiting No. 3 Norfolk Academy a 40-29 defeat in the conference tournament semifinals.

“I think the first half, we came out a little sluggish, defensively,” NSA coach Kim Aston said. “The second half, we changed up our scheme a little bit. We matched up Lindsay (Knierbein) on Tyler (Moore), and she did a nice job on her.”

Lady Bulldogs junior forward/guard/center Tyler Moore is one of the top scorers in the TCIS, averaging about 20 points a game. She had success in the first half, but experienced less in the second, finishing with only 14 points for the game.

Norfolk Academy made it challenging for Nansemond-Suffolk to score, as well.

“They play tough defense because they put pressure on Harper (Birdsong), they put a good defender on Harper, and then on everybody else, they play a lot of help defense trying to take away Harper’s penetration,” Aston said. “And so, by them doing that, at the beginning of the game, we were forcing too much instead of just running an offense and trying to make them come spread out on defense.”

She said the Lady Saints did a little bit better job in the second half, hitting some shots when they needed to.

NSA junior point guard Harper Birdsong led all scorers with 23 points and added six rebounds and three assists.

Also proving clutch for the Lady Saints was sophomore guard Logan Harrell, who provided some key points in the second half to keep the Lady Bulldogs at bay. She finished with six points, four steals and two offensive rebounds.

“She’s really come along, and at the beginning of the year, I knew that we would need her, and I had confidence in her, but I didn’t want to throw her out to the wolves at the beginning of the season,” Aston said. “It’s a lot different level than playing on the (junior varsity) team.”

Harrell has started the last two games, as senior guard Bridget Murphy had been away at North Carolina State University, where she is up for a Park Scholarship.

Aston said the conflict in Murphy’s schedule had been anticipated, so the coaching staff had been giving Harrell gradually more opportunities to prepare her for her present starting role.

“I think I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable since the beginning of the season, because just being like a sophomore out there, smallest one out there, is really nerve-wracking,” Harrell said. But after being able to play a lot, “I’ve gotten used to the competition, and I can handle it a lot better mentally now.”

Harrell and Knierbein both gained experience in high-pressure circumstances during the NSA girls’ volleyball team’s 2014 state championship run, to which they were both key contributors.

Junior center Caroline Hogg contributed four points, seven rebounds and seven blocks on Sunday, while senior guard Sarah Higinbotham added four points and nine rebounds, including five offensive boards, and sophomore forward Kelly Hogan had 10 rebounds and three assists.

The No. 2 Lady Saints will now vie to become back-to-back TCIS tournament champions on Monday as they take on No. 5 Cape Henry Collegiate School, which upset host No. 1 Norfolk Christian School on Sunday.

While she did not know at the time whether her team would face the Lady Dolphins or the Lady Ambassadors, Birdsong said she was expecting a dogfight either way on Monday.

“That’s what we want,” she said. “Last year, we would beat teams by like 20 or 30 points, and this year, we’re winning by small margins, but I think that we’re best in those situations.”

Both the Lady Saints and Lady Dolphins will be playing their third game in as many days, but Birdsong said she prefers the arrangement to one she heard which would have eliminated the quarterfinals and just featured a semifinals and final on Saturday.

Aston noted Cape Henry is low in numbers this year, and their starters likely logged heavy minutes on Sunday.

Both teams will benefit from what conditioning they have had as they face off on Monday at 5 p.m. at Hampton Roads Academy.

“I think it’s going to be tough on everybody,” Aston said.