COLUMBUS -- The Snook Lady Jays leaned on quickness and depth for a 54-39 victory over the Shiner Lady Comanches in the Class A Division I girls regional quarterfinals Tuesday night at Columbus High School.

Snook (25-9) advances to the Region IV tournament at New Braunfels Canyon High School where it will face the Medina-Sabinal winner at noon Friday.

Snook is hopeful a new venue will be a little luckier than last year when the Lady Jays lost in double overtime to Falls City at the Burger Center in Austin.

A new venue didn't change things for 21st-ranked Shiner (28-7), which was bounced from the playoffs for the second straight time by 20th-ranked Snook as the Lady Jays never trailed.

"We're experienced. We know what it takes to get to the regional tournament," Snook head coach Megan Symank said. "Shiner is a great team. They had a lot of the same returning starters from last year. We didn't underestimate them. They run a lot of the same things we do."

Snook just ran them better, even through some adversity.

The Lady Comanches thought they'd caught a break when Snook junior guard Miya Hoskins picked up two quick fouls, but the Lady Jays didn't miss a beat as Chastity Howard scored a game-high 18 points -- 11.5 points higher than her season average.

"She struggled early, especially at the free-throw line," Symank said. "But we have to have faith in our players."

Howard rewarded her coach by constantly finding holes in Shiner's zone defense. She hit a pair of putback baskets, three fastbreak baskets and added a trio of jumpers. That made up for being 2 of 9 at the free-throw line. She missed two free throws badly to start the fourth quarter, with the second one falling 3 feet short of the rim. But the next time down she hit a contested 16-footer along the baseline to push Snook's lead to 43-33.

"That's a sophomore," Symank said. "She's a young player. She got some experience last year, but this is her first year to start and first time to start in the playoffs. And we haven't had too many games where we had to fight to win every quarter."

Snook is undefeated against Class A teams this season, benefitting from a challenging nondistrict schedule with losses to several 3A and 2A playoff teams including Giddings, Navasota, Madisonville, Leon and Centerville.

All those tough matchups seemed to be paying off at the start of the second half as Howard had eight points in four minutes, capped by a three-point play to give Snook a 38-22 lead. Snook, hampered by turnovers, didn't hit another basket until Howard atoned for her missed free throws.

"[She] really hit some big shots," said Shiner head coach John Hoelter, who was pleased with a lot of things his team did.

Shiner held Snook junior point guard Shakera Barnes to 11 points, and Hoskins hit only 1 of 7 shots. Barnes had 17 points and 11 assists in last year's 50-26 romp over Shiner in the area round.

"I thought we did a good job on [Barnes]," Hoelter said. "We made her work, and that's what we wanted to do. But they are just a good, solid team."

Shiner had a tough time handling Snook's man-to-man defense, committing 24 turnovers.

"We couldn't get the ball down the court, which didn't allow us to get it inside," Hoelter said. "Then we tried to force passes, but give their defense credit. That was a big part of it."

Shiner junior post Amanise Coleman, the tallest player on the court, got in foul trouble and was never a factor. She ended with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Sophomore post Julianna Rankin came off the bench for five points and a game-high seven rebounds and ignited a couple of spurts in the third quarter that gave Shiner hope, especially when Hoskins picked up her fourth foul as Snook's lead dwindled to 40-33.

Hoskins also was in foul trouble last year against Shiner.

"We tried to prepare her not to make the same mistake, but we also have to rely on our bench," Symank said. "We're not always going to have our three guards out there."

Snook senior forward Aleah Bowers had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from the line. Senior forward Brandalyn Williams came off the bench for eight points and four rebounds, helping the Lady Jays take a 24-15 halftime lead. It often wasn't pretty as the teams combined for six turnovers to start the second quarter before anyone scored.

The third quarter was fast-paced and fun to watch as the teams combined to hit 14 of 22 shots. There were several off-balance shots that found nothing but net, much to the delight of the crowd.

Snook was quicker, but the pace seemed to favor Shiner, which went on an 11-2 run to pull within seven with Hoskins on the bench.

"We cut it to [seven] a couple of times," Hoelter said. "They got some quickness and when we did make a run there in the third, I had three sophomores and a freshman out there. They've stepped up all year long when things haven't been going right."

Shiner could never get closer than seven in the final quarter as Hoskins and Barnes controlled play with their quickness and ballhandling.

Barnes ended with seven assists and a dazzling defensive play to punctuate the victory. Shiner point guard Stacey Perez came up with a steal in the final minute and was headed toward an uncontested layup. She dribbled down the lane only to be caught by a streaking Barnes, who took over the dribble and made a U-turn.

Snook 54, Shiner 39

(Numbers after name are field goals made-attempted, free throws made-attempted, rebounds, fouls and points.)

SNOOK (25-9) -- Miya Hoskins 1-7 2-2 2 4 4; Shakera Barnes 5-12 0-0 3 0 11; Jessica Hadley 0-0 0-0 2 0 0; Aleah Bowers 5-6 3-4 6 4 13; Chastity Howard 8-10 2-9 5 0 18; Brittany Snell 0-0 0-0 0 0 0; Brandalyn Williams 2-2 4-6 4 2 8; Haily Dever 0-1 0-0 1 0 0; Emily Lewis 0-0 0-0 0 0 0. Totals: 21-38 11-21 23 10 54.

SHINER (28-7) -- Amanise Coleman 5-9 0-0 2 5 10; LaNeshia Hunt 2-4 1-2 3 0 5; Stacey Perez 1-5 1-2 1 3 3; Ryah Michalec 1-4 0-0 1 2 2; Jordan Pietsch 1-2 1-2 2 0 3; Lauren Oden 3-4 901 0 1 1; Julianna Rankin 2-4 1-2 7 3 5; Clara Harper 0-0 0-0 0 0 0; Hannah Koenning 1-1 0-0 0 0 2; Shamyra Coleman 1-2 1-2 0 0 3; Meagan Chumchal 0-0 0-0 0 0 0. Totals: 17-35 5-11 16 14 39

Snook 13 11 17 13 -- 54

Shiner 7 8 18 6 -- 39

Turnovers: Shiner 24 for 18 Snook points; Snook 18 for 14 Shiner points.