IRVINE — The CIF-SS Division 1 first-round girls basketball game between Orange Lutheran and Crean Lutheran on Thursday wasn’t always pretty, as both teams missed their share of shots.

But the Saints won the rebounding battle on both ends of the court and scored on two well-executed offensive plays late in the fourth quarter to earn a 44-39 victory at Crean Lutheran High School.

“Our goal tonight was to hold them under 40,” Crean Lutheran coach Kyle Rouse said. “We did it by one point. So, it counts, I guess.”

The Saints (23-5), who are ranked No. 7 in Orange County, will play Ventura in a second-round game Saturday at Ventura High. Ventura defeated Thousand Oaks, 63-40, in a first-round game.

The Saints led the No. 8 Lancers 20-18 in a low-scoring first half.

Crean Lutheran was able to create some separation in the third quarter, holding the Lancers (13-12) to a single basket from the field and two made free throws.

Baskets from Micaela Hanning and Stacy Echtenkamp in the opening minutes of the fourth gave the Saints a 34-23 lead.

The Lancers got within seven on consecutive baskets from Olivia Taleon.

Echtenkamp then made a perfect high-low bounce pass to Sydnee Norwood, who scored on an easy layup to put the Saints back up by nine with three minutes, 25 seconds remaining.

Then the Lancers scored eight points in a 30-second span to make it a one-score game.

The Lancers’ Kayla Watanabe hit a 3-pointer and the Lancers stole the inbound pass.

Watanabe was fouled and made both free throws.

Then the Lancers stole the inbound pass again and Kelly Garrity hit a 3-pointer to get the Lancers to within three at 38-35 with 1:25 remaining.

Crean Lutheran ran down the clock to just over one minute on the ensuing possession. The Lancers missed a shot but Jordyn Norwood grabbed the offensive rebound.

After a timeout, Sydnee Norwood hit a layup on an identical play as the one she scored on minutes earlier, this time taking a high-low pass from Jane Hewitt.

“For the shots that I made, I just owe it all to my teammates,” Sydnee Norwood said. “They were great passes and they made the correct decision because I was open on the bottom.”

Sydnee Norwood’s basket put the Saints up, 42-39, with 4.9 seconds left.

Hanning was then fouled and hit one of two free throws to clinch the victory.

Taleon led the Lancers with 10 points. Garrity scored nine, including five in the fourth quarter.

“I think what was different was they rebounded more and I felt like we played a lot more defense than they did,” Garrity said of her Lancers teammates. “We shot it, and it was one and done and we were already back on defense. So that’s kind of hard to set up our offense. I think in the beginning we started off so slow because our offense we just couldn’t run anything.”