CHICO >> The No. 2 seed Chico High hosted No. 3 Foothill on Tuesday night with a trip to the Northern Section Division III championship on the line.

The two teams went back and forth in the first half as the Panthers and Cougars had six lead changes in the opening 16 minutes. The Cougars took the lead with two minutes remaining until halftime and held onto the lead the entire third quarter, extending their lead to as much as eight points with 5:45 to play in the fourth quarter.

Chico battled back to take the lead with 2:35 remaining, and the Panthers held on to defeat Foothill 54-52 Tuesday night at Chico High School.

Chico High (23-6) now advances to the NSCIF championship for the first time since 2014, when it will look to win its first section title since back-to-back section championships in 2013 and 2014. The Panthers will take on cross-town rival Pleasant Valley (25-3) at 7:45 p.m. Friday at Butte College. The Vikings defeated the Panthers in both regular season games this season.

“I know the girls fight their butt off every day at practice. They came out here; they fought their butt off today,” said Chico High coach Sean Conrad, now in his third year with the Panthers. “I feel like I’m learning as we go, but these girls, it’s all the hard work they put in. They deserve it.”

With 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Chico sophomore Josie Carlos hit a 3-pointer from the corner to trim the Cougars’ lead to one point at 49-48, and with 2:35 remaining, Taylee Clements made a layup to give Chico a one point lead at 50-49. With 2:08 remaining, Carlos made her second 3-pointer to increase the Panthers’ lead to 53-49, but the Cougars would not give up.

Carlos said she believes in herself and knew if the shots were wide open, she needed to take them, despite the Panthers’ struggles from the 3-point line.

“Josie’s built for war,” Conrad said. “Josie’s ready to rock. Josie will guard you 90 feet and then hit 3’s. She’s great.”

A layup by Foothill’s Kalea Thomas and a free throw by Kaylee Bosetti trimmed the Chico lead to 53-52, and Carlos made 1-of-2 free throws to extend the lead to 54-52 with 6 seconds to play. Foothill had time for one final shot.

Lexi Peters dribbled up court and passed to a teammate in the corner. Peters’ teammate started in the corner from the 3-point line and dribbled once before going to a euro-step type move. She attempted to make a pass to Bosetti but was called for traveling before the pass as time expired, giving the Panthers the victory.

After a first quarter in which Foothill got out to a 6-0 lead at the start and saw the Cougars lead throughout, the Panthers and Cougars exchanged leads four times in the second quarter, with neither team leading by more than three points. Campbell Vieg led Chico with 12 points in the first half and finished with 20 to lead the Panthers. Clements scored seven points in the first half and finished with 11 points, and Carlos finished with nine points — all in the second half. Rayen Letner and Rebecca Digmon had four points each in the second half.

“I think it was just a need to bring up the energy, and I think bringing up the energy brought a lot of positivity back to our team, and it really reinforced the thought process of scoring together again,” Carlos said about the difference in the fourth quarter. “I think we just needed to find ourselves and we got in our own heads.”

Going into the fourth quarter, Vieg told her teammates that it was her senior season and how badly she wanted a chance at the NSCIF championship Friday.

“We wanted to play together again, we didn’t want this to be our last time, so we wanted it really bad, and I think it showed in that fourth quarter,” Vieg said, who pointed to the turnovers by the Panthers in the first three quarters. “We were like, this is a group that can win, we want to win together, and we pulled it together and played within ourselves.”

Chico, which had shot the ball well from the 3-point line, had to rely on its ability to drive to the hoop Tuesday with the deep balls not falling. Vieg believes the Panthers’ ability to drive to the hoop shows that they can be well-rounded in their offense and it will prove well in their next step in the NSCIF finals against PV.

“It really shows that we are a versatile team. Maybe some people think that we just shoot, but we can drive and do a lot more,” Vieg said. “If we are driving like we did tonight and we have our 3’s, we can win a section title. It really proves that.”

The Panthers will have that chance Friday night when they take on Pleasant Valley at 7:45 at Butte College.

“We’re going to come out with chips on our shoulders and be ready to ball out,” Carlos said.