"It looks worse than it feels," the Eau Claire North senior said of her fractured fourth metacarpal, suffered in a basketball game last week.

Parr paused to let her face break into a piano-keys smile.

"With all the adrenaline I had tonight," she said, "a broken finger wasn't going to keep me down."

Neither was the Eau Claire Memorial girls basketball team, which fell victim to yet another impressive performance by Parr in the Huskies' come-from-behind 45-41 Big Rivers Conference victory at the Eagles Nest.

The win was the seventh straight for North (8-1, 13-2), which remained tied with Hudson atop the eight-team Big Rivers standings. Memorial (7-2, 13-2), which entered the night ranked No. 6 in The Associated Press Division 1 state poll, had its eight-game win streak stopped and fell one game off the BRC pace.

Both of the Old Abes' losses this season were deflating, close-score verdicts to North. Memorial's 1999-2000 season ended in the same fashion in a WIAA Division 1 regional final.

In each case, Parr was the Abes' No. 1 foil.

"I just get fired up to play them," said Parr, who sat out the Huskies' game Tuesday and didn't receive medical clearance to play against Memorial until Friday morning -- as long as she played with her two middle fingers taped together and her hand wrapped in a soft cast.

Her doctor's initial prognosis had her missing up to one month of playing time.

But Parr, who had 36 points in North's overtime win over Memorial on Dec. 8, had game highs of 16 points and seven rebounds Friday. Nine of her points and her two biggest rebounds came in the fourth quarter, when the Huskies bounced back from a 34-26 deficit.

"I hate to keep harping on this," Parr said, "but it seems like Memorial and Hudson are the only teams people talk about when they talk about the Big Rivers. I figure if we keep beating them, maybe we can get noticed for a change."

The Huskies did little to earn notice -- positive notice, anyway -- through the first three quarters Friday. There were missed shots, turnovers and left feet everywhere you looked. They had an uncharacteristic 12 first-half turnovers and shot 9-for-27 (33.3 percent) through three quarters.

"That wasn't the real us out there," North sophomore forward Amanda Eisold said. "It took us a while to get warmed up."

Eisold began stoking the flames with a 3-pointer 1 minute, 38 seconds into the fourth quarter to pull the Huskies within 34-31.

"I'd only tried one other 3 this year," said the 6-foot Eisold, who scored seven of her 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Eisold's last field goal came after a 3-pointer by Memorial's Becca Carstensen, who matched her career high with 14 points, and tied the game at 40 with 2:54 left.

Parr put the Huskies up for good with a put-back basket after a missed free throw by Anne Connell with 1:05 left, and Parr iced the verdict with two free throws with 10 seconds left -- again after snaring a rebound.

After her first free throw, she high-fived Eisold hard enough to break a few more metacarpals.

"(The Huskies) earned the win," said Memorial guard Joanna Leafblad, who scored a season-low seven points -- thanks in part to a jammed thumb on her right hand and to stellar defense by North's Kricket Whyte. "We've played, what, four games in a week, and I think our fatigue got to us in the fourth quarter."

Said Huskies coach Dan Sippel: "You can measure points and rebounds and turnovers, but you can't measure heart. We showed a ton of heart tonight."

EAU CLAIRE NORTH (45)

FG-A FT-A TP: Anne Connell 0-1 1-3 1, Lindsey Rongstad 1-5 0-1 2, Kricket Whyte 4-4 0-0 8, Andrea Thorsness 0-4 4-6 4, Larissa Parr 6-15 4-6 16, Heather Dekan 0-0 0-0 0, Amanda Eisold 4-6 5-5 14, Rian Bauerkemper 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-35 14-21 45.

EAU CLAIRE MEMORIAL (41)

Jess Huettl 2-7 1-2 6, Joanna Leafblad 3-10 0-0 7, Molly Menard 1-1 2-4 4, Becca Carstensen 6-10 0-0 14, Amanda Buchholz 2-12 1-4 5, Christine Graham 0-0 0-0 0, Melissa Kaiser 2-5 1-1 5, Bekah Howard 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-46 5-11 41.

Eau Claire North 11 2 13 19 -- 45

Eau Claire Memorial 16 5 13 7 -- 41

3-point goals: North 1-3 (Eisold 1-1, Rongstad 0-2), Memorial 4-10 (Carstensen 2-4, Leafblad 1-2, Huettl 1-2, Kaiser 0-2). Rebounds: North 29 (Parr 7, Whyte 5, Thorsness 5), Memorial 25 (Carstensen 6, Menard 5). Fouls: North 13, Memorial 13. Fouled out: Memorial, Buchholz, Graham. Turnovers: North 14, Memorial 11.

RECORDS: North 8-1, 13-2; Memorial 7-2, 13-2.