Dime Pieces’ play was in mint condition.

While normally having four players available, only three played on Tuesday night, but it didn’t matter. Dime Pieces won a close first game over White Girls Can Jump, 15-13, and then had an easier time in the second game, winning 15-8.

“[Dime Pieces] plays good defense,” said White Girls sophomore Nikala Earlywine, who scored 7 points in the first game, then dropped only two in the second. “They took away my left hand, and shots just went cold.”

And while defense is what wins championships, there was also a strong offensive element to the Dime Pieces.

Almost all the offense for the squad ran through senior Megan Hullermann, who could be found shooting from inside and outside the 2-point line. She had 15 of her team’s 30 points in the two games, including five 2-pointers in the matches, which use a scoring system of 1- and 2-point shots. Hullermann also had seven rebounds.

Her teammates in the game, senior Dani Olerich and junior Liz Bloyer, were key cogs in the smooth pass and cut offense. Olerich was an offensive-rebound guru, tallying five. Bloyer kept pace with her with five offensive boards of her own to go with 7 points in the two games.

But despite the difference in final score, both teams agreed on a dislike for the 3-on-3 style of basketball, which led to sloppy play early in the games.

“We’re athletic, so we like to run the court,” Hullerman said. “We can’t do that in 3-on-3.”

White Girls freshman Lindsey Reed, who played point guard for her high-school team, agreed, saying, “You have to use a lot more ball movement, and height matters more [in 3-on-3].”

She may be on to something — Dime Pieces did have a minor height advantage.

Reed also said her team was at fault because of their play.

“We moved around a lot,” Reed said. “We just didn’t move the ball a lot.”

In the coming rounds, Dime Pieces will likely continue to rely on the outside shot of Hullerman, as well as the continued contributions of its other three players. The team now will move on to the quarterfinals, beginning at 8:30 p.m. today.

For White Girls, its run in the tournament may not be over. Because of the double-elimination format of the bracket, the women will get a College World Series-esque chance at redemption; the squad will face the Dream Team in an elimination game at 6:30 p.m. today. The winner of that game will have to then turn around and play another elimination game at 8:30 p.m.

But if the players want to be successful, they say they must improve on a few things. First, they cited “fatigue” in the second game, and they also want to employ a new strategy.

“We need more pick and rolls,” Reed said. “A lot of them.”