AUGUSTA — The undefeated  Gardiner girls basketball team has rarely been tested this season as it motors toward the top seed in the Class A North tournament.

Things changed Tuesday night for the Tigers (16-0), who needed some late-game heroics to pull out a 68-62 overtime victory over rival Cony.

“The Cony-Gardiner game is always fun, it’s always going to be a great matchup,” said Gardiner senior Lizzy Gruber, whose layup in the closing seconds of regulation sent the game into overtime with the teams at 57. “We haven’t had a lot of games where we’ve had to battle back, or even be down for very long. So to have this before playoffs is absolutely amazing for us. We had a great game the other day (a 70-54 win) as well with Nokomis. All this is doing is making us stronger and showing that we can play a full 32 minutes.”

The Tigers entered the week with second highest offense (62.8 points per game) in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A. Gardiner is also second in the conference in scoring defense (34.5 ppg).

But on Tuesday night, the Tigers faced adversity after the Rams parlayed a 12-0 run into a 27-16 halftime lead.

Still, the resilient Tigers didn’t panic. They slowly chipped away at the deficit and eventually pulled away to secure the victory. Gruber finished with 28 points and 16 rebounds.

“I’m really proud,” Gardiner head coach Mike Gray said. “Cony forced us into situations where it would have been really easy to fold. But we have a lot of juniors and seniors and they’ve seen it all. Down five (points) with a minute-and-a-half left, I’m really proud of the resiliency they showed. They stuck together when things weren’t going well.”

Gruber — who is second in the KVAC in scoring (20.3 ppg) and first in rebounds (14.4 per game) and blocks (5.1 per game) — propelled the Tigers to overtime. But Gardiner also leaned on its depth, something it will need to do come tournament time.

Gardiner’s Taylor Takatsu, left, and Lizzy Gruber, right, battle Cony’s Morgan Cunningham for a loose ball during a girls basketball game Tuesday in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

It was senior guard Savannah Brown who knocked down a 3-pointer at the start of overtime to give the Tigers a 60-57 lead. It was junior forward Taylor Takatsu chipping in with 10 points, and helping Gruber on the boards. It was senior guard Megan Gallagher — fifth in the KVAC in 3-pointers made (28) — burying a needed shot from beyond the arc.

“When we realized, ‘Oh, (Cony) came to play and we didn’t,’ we needed to step it up,” Takatsu said. “Teams are going to give us a challenge. We can’t expect to just walk into the gym and go, ‘Oh, we’ve already got the win.'”

“A lot of teams in this league aren’t as deep as us,” Gruber added. “We can go 10, 12, 13 or 14 girls deep (on the roster). It’s crazy. Other teams play five, six or seven girls. We can go as deep if we need. We got into foul trouble and it didn’t really phase us. We have a lot of size that comes off the bench, we have a lot of guards that can shoot that comes off the bench. I’m really proud of those girls as well, because to be able to come off the bench and give 100 percent as soon as you step on the floor, it’s really impressive.”

The rest of the regular season doesn’t get easier for the Tigers. Gardiner travels to Fairfield on Feb. 7 to play No. 2 Lawrence (12-2), which has won 10 straight games since a 62-52 loss to Bangor on Dec. 22. The Bulldogs fell 41-37 to Gardiner on Dec. 14. The Tigers wrap up the regular season on Feb. 9 against Skowhegan (6-8), the defending Class A champion.

“With just two games left in our (regular) season, it’s just coming together,” Takatsu said. “Almost finishing that 1,000-piece puzzle. It’s all coming together.”