COLO – From a half-court buzzer-beating heave to pressure-filled free throws, the Royals needed every last point from Shayla Dean. The senior all-state guard scored the Royals’ final 16 and finished with a game-high 21 to help the Class 1A No. 6 Colo-NESCO girls basketball team stave off a resilient Gladbrook-Reinbeck squad, 41-38, in Tuesday’s District 4 quarterfinal. The hard-fought win earned the Royals a third meeting with North Tama (20-3) Friday in a semifinal game at 7 p.m. in Colo. Dean drilled two free throws with 5.3 seconds left to spell the final margin and surpass the 1,000-point mark for her career. With just one foul against them, the Royals (21-1) used two quick ones to slow down the Rebels’ forward progress in the final seconds and Hayley Weber’s desperation 3 from the corner was off the mark as Colo-NESCO survived. The Royals were rewarded with their own desperation shot by Dean at half-court to beat the third-quarter horn and turn the tide back in the home team’s favor. “After I hit that half-court (shot), I think our momentum got going again,” Dean said. “We knew we wanted it, we knew we had to fight through all this and it was just getting our momentum going.” Makaelyn Neuendorf added 10 points and 14 rebounds for the Royals who led by as much as 13 in the second quarter. The Rebels scored just nine points in the first half but scored the first seven in the opening 94 seconds of the second to close within 20-16. Coming off a 10-for-20 outing from beyond the arc in its regional opening win over GMG on Thursday, Gladbrook-Reinbeck made just one through the first 16 minutes Tuesday before heating up in the third. Nicole Adair buried a 3, Kyleah Dugan drove the baseline for two points and Hanna Christopher sliced through the Royal defense for a layup to trim the deficit to four. Colo-NESCO rebuilt its cushion to nine on Hannah Buseman’s trey but no Royal other than Dean scored the rest of the night as the Rebels retaliated with a 10-2 flurry. Weber and Dugan hit 3-pointers around a Christopher baseline drive to cut the gap to 27-26. “We didn’t come out with that extra hop in our step,” Royals coach Wayne Cafferty said of the third quarter. “It was a combination of lazy coverages and good shooting, they hit one and then they start feeling it. We changed to man and did a better job of covering up their looks.” Dean freed herself around a screen for a triple to make it a two-possession game before Amber Berendes answered with her own from the corner to bring it back to one. Dean reclaimed some breathing room for the Royals as she took a few dribbles and hoisted up a half-court prayer that found its way into the basket to give Colo-NESCO a 33-29 edge entering the fourth. Dean’s final of her four 3s in the game stretched out a 37-31 lead but Adair connected once more from deep and Christopher hit a pair of free throws to close within one with 1:12 left. Dean made both ends of a one-and-one and the Colo-NESCO defense made the Rebels (12-11) use precious seconds before Christopher’s putback closed the gap to 39-38. Dean calmly connected on two more free throws and finished 7-of-8 from the line to help the Royals avoid the upset. The 5-foot-3 senior also had six rebounds, three steals and five assists. “She’s a whirlwind,” Rebels coach Eric Crandall said. “We’re fortunate she’s not in our conference. Our guard, Nicole, played a hell of a game on her too and made her work for everything that she got. A couple times we did some things on the screens that I probably wish I would have had back. I told our girls to switch on it and I gave her some room, she hit a 3 from the top of the key, and just little things that I’ll think about. “That’s a heck of a team, that’s the best team we’ve played this year. … I’m very proud of our team for fighting back. We’re going to miss our seniors a lot, we’ve come a long way in two years.” Adair paced the Rebels with 10 points, Christopher had nine and Dugan had seven. Weber and Berendes added six and five respectively. Buseman and Melanie Van Loon chipped in five apiece for the Royals though Cafferty knows his team will need more support for Dean Friday. “We want the ball in her hands but we’ve got to get other kids to contribute,” Cafferty said. “Luckily we had the best player on the floor tonight and she stepped up like she’s done time and time before, but we’ve got to get more contributions if we’re going to stay alive in tournaments.” Notebook The Royals swept the Redhawks this season by scores of 47-42 and 56-43. North Tama beat Don Bosco 48-32 Tuesday in Traer. The winner of Friday’s game will face either ninth-ranked Janesville or Kee High in the regional final Monday in Hudson. Dean sits at 1,001 points for her career.