The Bradford girls basketball team played so poorly in its 61-50 loss at Elkhorn on Jan. 23 that when coach Jessica Stevens showed the video to her players on Monday, they asked her to turn it off.

“They honestly said, ‘We don’t want to watch this. It’s that ugly,’ ” Stevens said.

With redemption on their minds Tuesday night, the No. 5 seed Red Devils sought to prove that loss was an anomaly, and they succeeded with a 51-27 victory over No. 12 seed Elkhorn in a WIAA Division-1 regional semifinal at Bradford.

“We felt horrible. We knew we should have played better and it was just a terrible game,” Bradford shooting guard Anna Dix said of her team’s previous meeting with the Elks (6-17). “It was like a season-changing thing because everyone knew that we could play so much better than that, so we all picked it up after then.”

Including Tuesday’s win, Bradford is 6-3 since that defeat. And the Red Devils (11-11) didn’t waste any time Tuesday showing that they are a much-improved team from what they were about six weeks ago.

Strong first quarter

Rachael Wenberg scored eight of her 12 points, point guard Stephanie Barsuli hit two 3-pointers and Katie Young tallied six of her 10 points as Bradford built a 22-8 lead after the first quarter. From then, the rout was on as Dix hit four 3s over the final three quarters and finished with a season-high 14 points.

“I like shooting 3s,” said Dix, who leads the Red Devils with 31 triples, one more than Young.

“Anna’s definitely our shooter,” Stevens said. “She’s a pure shooter. When she’s on, she’s on. So it definitely helped relieve the pressure on the inside, which is what we didn’t have the first time we played (Elkhorn).”

Barsuli drilled two more 3s and totaled 13 points. Young also chipped in 10 rebounds, five blocks and four assists, while Wenberg contributed 12 rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

The Red Devils, who will play No. 13 seed Lake Geneva Badger (6-17) in a regional final 1 p.m. Saturday at Bradford, led by as many as 28 when Wenberg scored on a putback with 3 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. Bradford defeated Badger 56-33 on Dec. 8.

Stevens, Dix and Wenberg each conceded that Bradford is playing its best basketball of the season since that Elkhorn loss, which appears to be just the jolt that the Red Devils needed.

“We had literally no skill the last time we played them,” Wenberg said. “We couldn’t shoot, we couldn’t dribble, we couldn’t pass. For us to have an entire full game (Tuesday), it was great. ... We came into the game looking to not just win but to blow out this team.”

Dix, Barsuli, Wenberg and Young are all seniors, and Dix said the finality of the postseason — lose and you’re done — has helped give the Red Devils a greater sense of urgency.

“Katie and Rachael I think are the only two that are playing college basketball, so for me and Steph it’s our last season, it’s our last games and everyone wants to do well because we don’t want it to end,” Dix said.