MADISONVILLE -- The wild ride that is District 24-3A girls basketball reached breakneck speed Friday night in a game that left the winners drained and the losers proud.

Rudder survived a stunning comeback, holding on to bounce past Madisonville 66-65 in overtime at Mustang Gymnasium.

The seventh-ranked Lady Rangers kept alive their hopes for a share of the district championship, avenging a home loss to Madisonville last month. Rudder, which has a bye on Tuesday, finished the regular season at 26-6 overall and 10-2 in the league.

Third-ranked Madisonville dropped to 26-5 and 10-1. The Lady Mustangs will close the regular season Tuesday at sixth-ranked Navasota, which can forge a three-way tie for first place with a victory.

All of the 24-3A powers have clinched state playoff berths, and the postseason games may lack the drama of Friday's showdown. Rudder started great and led by as many as 13 points in the second half, but the Lady Mustangs roared back to tie the game and missed three potential winning shots in the last 10 seconds of regulation.

Madisonville took its only lead of the game early in the overtime session, but Rudder scored the next six points. The Lady Mustangs battled through the final 3:03 of the extra session with four players on the floor because three starters fouled out and a substitute left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury.

Still, Madisonville missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer.

"Between junior high and high school, I've probably coached close to 1,000 games, and I've never, ever been involved in anything like that," Rudder coach John Shelton said.

The Lady Mustangs came ever-so-close to clinching the outright district championship. Madisonville, which never led in regulation time, watched three shots bounce off the rim with the game tied 56-56 in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.

Even after being reduced to four players, the Lady Mustangs rallied on two baskets by junior Brittney Smith in the final minute of OT. Smith made a 3-pointer with 8 seconds remaining that brought Madisonville within 66-65.

Smith then pounced on a loose ball in the Rudder backcourt with a couple of seconds left, but her hurried 25-footer bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

"I've never played a game with four players," Madisonville coach Shana Taylor said. "It's a tribute to those girls. I had one starter in the game, and the rest of them stepped up and played. I am so proud of them. It takes away all the pain of losing when your kids play like that."

Rudder dodged what could have been a devastating loss on the brink of the first playoff appearance in the history of the program that began last season.

"We didn't deserve to lose that game," Shelton said. "We played too well for 3 1/2 quarters. Us being a young team, I felt like if we lost that game a lot of our morale we'd built throughout the season would have gone away."

Rudder controlled the first three quarters, frustrating Madisonville with a zone defense that limited the scoring chances for center Chasity Young and allowed the visitors to avoid allowing many of the offensive rebounds that cost them in a 79-66 loss to Madisonville in the first round.

The Lady Mustangs missed 15 of 17 attempts from 3-point range in the first half, helping Rudder grab a 32-21 halftime lead. Madisonville finished 4 for 24 from beyond the arc. Young, who had 19 points in the first meeting, scored eight before fouling out early in the fourth quarter Friday.

"We don't like to play a 2-3 zone," Shelton said. "We almost never do it. But if it's the difference in winning and losing, we'll do it."

Madisonville trailed 49-41 when Young fouled out with 5:09 left in regulation. Guard Unique Johnson fouled out a couple of minutes later, but reserve Anesia Robinson scored off a nice pass from freshman Lisa Nealey, who added two free throws as the home team scored the last four points of the period.

Rudder missed 6 of 11 free throws in the fourth quarter, including two when the game was tied with 12 seconds remaining.

Madisonville took its only lead when Nealey hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 59-58 early in the 4-minute overtime.

Alicia Chambers made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game, and then Lamaria Cole put the Lady Rangers ahead to stay with a jumper on a fast break set up by a turnover. Jazzlyn Roberson hit 4 of 6 free throws in overtime, the first two of which came after Madisonville received a technical foul for calling a timeout it didn't have.

Marche Amerson led Rudder in scoring with 24 points, while Cole added 20. Amerson and Taylor Tucker handled most of the defensive work inside against Young.

Nealey had a terrific game. The freshman led the Lady Mustangs with 25 points, adding several key rebounds and assists during the second-half rally.

The Lady Mustangs played their first game since losing starting point guard Trinicia Shaffer, who left the team this week for personal reasons.

Rudder 66, Madisonville 65, OT

(Numbers indicate field goals, free throws made-attempted, fouls and points)

RUDDER (26-6, 10-2) -- Tiara Tucker 1 2-2 3 4; Tori Tucker 2 1-6 4 5; Jazzlyn Roberson 1 5-8 3 7; Alicia Chambers 0 1-2 3 1; Taylor Tucker 2 1-5 2 5; Lamaria Cole 6 7-9 4 20; Marche Amerson 9 6-9 2 24. Totals: 21 23-41 21 66.

MADISONVILLE (26-5, 10-1) -- Lisa Nealey 8 9-11 3 25; Adrianna Gilbert 1 0-0 5 3; Anesia Robinson 1 1-3 4 3; Brittney Smith 3 5-7 4 13; Chasity Young 4 0-0 5 8; Kayla Cooper 0 0-0 1 0; Unique Johnson 4 4-6 5 13. Totals: 21 19-27 27 65.

Rudder 19 13 12 12 10 -- 66

Madisonville 10 11 16 19 9 -- 65