By the hair on their chinny chin chin

A dominating first half and a seemingly comfortable 20-point advantage turned into a white-knuckled, last-second heart stopper for the Cedar Grove-Belgium High School girls’ basketball team on Nov. 26.

Up, 37-17, entering the second half, Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah nearly blew the Rockets lead down.

“Little too close,” coach Jason Jones said of the team earning its first victory of the season.

“We were leading the whole time. We missed some free throws. They made some shots and kept closing the gap.”

The Resorters closed the gap to as little as possible, hitting a three-pointer that cut the lead to one with four seconds left. Both teams had used up all of their timeouts and the Rockets were able to run out the clock and escape on the right side of a 50-49 nail biter.

“The girls kept their composure enough to maintain and get the win,” Jones said.

Alyssa Mentink led the Rockets with 14 points, going 4-for-9 on threes. Amy TenHaken went 2-for-4 from behind the arc.

In the first half, the Rockets caught fire from the outside, going 6-for-15 on three-pointers. In the second, the Rockets only took one shot from long range and the Resorters turned the tables, going 8-for-15 on three-pointers. Seven of them came from Ella Feldmann, who scored 18 points in the game, and Avery Feldmann.

“They didn’t give up. They played hard all the way through,” Jones said. “Give credit to coach Don Kulow. They played all the way through.”

The Rockets had their chances to ice the game.

“We were missing our free throws,” Jones said, adding the team shot 48% at the line.

“We weren’t finishing our layups either. We had some pretty good looks at times.”

Besides Mentink and TenHaken, Jones lauded the play of Shelby Cooney, who “always plays well defensively, hustles and really works hard for us.”

But, he said, “We found some things we need to get better at.”

The Rockets are 1-1 on the season. They host Sheboygan Christian on Thursday, play at Random Lake on Saturday and at Oostburg on Thursday, Dec. 12.