NILES —  Two of the six teams that will compete in the Division 2 district tournament squared off Tuesday night.

Edwardsburg got the upper hand with a 59-43 non-conference victory over host Niles.

The two teams are in opposite halves of the bracket, and would only meet in the championship game. However, both coaches said that Tuesday night’s game was still important as their teams begin the final stretch run to the postseason.

“We tell our girls one game at a time, but at this point in the season every game means something,” Edwardsburg coach Jon Pobuda said. “We are trying to get into that mental state where it is one and done right now. I think tonight we struggled at times, but we were able to regain our composure and make things happen when we needed them to.”

The Eddies (16-1) struggled in the third and third quarters, but trailed the Vikings 8-7 after one quarter, but scored the opening 12 points of the second quarter and led 31-19 at halftime.

Niles (8-9) came out and seem to have regrouped, cutting the Edwardsburg advantage to 39-29 heading to the final quarter.

Edwardsburg senior Abbey Krugh got hot in the final eight minutes, scoring 12 of her 15 points, as the Eddies pulled away.

Vikings coach Jessica Johnson hopes that playing the Eddies now will pay off at tournament time if they get a shot at them.

But for now, she knows her team has to fix some things.

“We’ve been struggling,” Johnson said. “Edwardsburg works well together, and they move well. Jon has several players with high basketball I.Q.’s.”

Claire Bartz led the Eddies with 16 points. Macey Laubach added nine.

Alysica Patterson scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Vikings. Amara Palmer added 11.