South Hamilton’s Tanna Thompson puts up a shot against East Marshall on Tuesday night. (DFJ photo by Angela Hewitt)

JEWELL — The South Hamilton girls handled business here Tuesday night, besting East Marshall in Class 2A regional play, 57-41.

Up next for the Hawks (14-7 overall) will be a trip to No. 9 Grundy Center (19-2) on Friday in the Region 8 semifinals. Grundy Center knocked off Madrid, 55-13.

Ashlyn Erickson scored a team-high 23 points with Tanna Thompson adding 17. The senior duo combined to go 12-for-20 from the field with five made 3-pointers.

“I’ve been happy with how we’ve been playing heading into postseason, and that continued (Tuesday),” South Hamilton head coach Mark Henderson said. “I thought we took smart shots, we played good defense and we rebounded as well as we have all year.”

Erickson also had six rebounds, as did Grace Neuberger and Kailyn Northrop, with Northrop also dishing out five assists.

South Hamilton raced out to an 11-4 lead and held a firm nine-point advantage at the break.

East Marshall was paced by Morgan Neuroth’s 23 points.

“It’s always fun to play some of these teams and players that you normally don’t get to see during the season,” Henderson said. “East Marshall has a player, Morgan Neuroth, who I’ve heard about for four years, but this was the first time we had matched up against her.

“She is a nice scorer and she got her points, but I thought Tanna really made her work for it.”

The winner between South Hamilton and Grundy Center takes on either sixth-ranked Nodaway Valley (19-3) or Southwest Valley (3-17) on Feb. 21 in the regional final.