By Richard Anderson

605 Sports

Down by double digits in the fourth quarter, it was do or die to see the long winning streak and another state title go by the wayside.

“We took a time out and our coaches came in the huddle and said, ‘It's not over,’” Moore said. “We still got whatever it was four minutes left so it was leave it all on the court and play our hardest. And so, all of our players took that and we all played as hard as we could.”

The No. 2 Lynx had a strong first quarter, led by Alivia Padgett, who scored the game’s first five points and had seven in the quarter. Ava Kellenberger also scored seven in the first period, hitting one 3-pointer.

After Brandon Valley jumped out to the early lead, the Knights responded with 10 of the next 12 points on a 3-pointer by Moore, five points from Terveen and two free throws by Julia Eggert for a 10-7 lead.

But the Lynx responded with two free throws each by Padgett and Ava Kellenberger and seven points from Kellenberger for an 18-10 advantage. A Terveen 3-pointer closed the first-quarter scoring.

The Lynx held on for the lead for the entire second quarter and used a steal and layup by Reese Condon and a basket by Gracie Salter to take a 26-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Brandon Valley hit 10-of-29 from the field, but just 1-of-7 from 3 and 5-of-11 free throws. Padgett led the way with nine points.

The Knights, who had 11 first-half turnovers, hit 8-of-21 from the field, 3-of-7 3-pointers and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe. Terveen had eight points to pace O’Gorman.

The early portion of the third period belonged to Amanda Lease, who hit two 3-pointers after going scoreless in the first half, giving the Lynx a 10-point edge with 6:06 remaining in the quarter. Brandon Valley maintained its momentum the rest of the quarter and led 34-28 going into the fourth.

The Lynx opened the fourth on a 7-2 run for a 12-point lead on a basket by Salter, another 3-pointer by Lease and a fastbreak bucket by Padgett.

O’Gorman came roaring back with its potent press forcing numerous turnovers that turned into offense. Seven points by Terveen capped a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 43-40 with 3:49 to play.

After a Padgett free throw, O’Gorman cut the lead to two on a running floater by Terveen with 1:15 remaining. The O’Gorman press forced two more turnovers and made the Lynx pay. Trailing 46-42 with 52 seconds left, Moore hit a basket, followed by a turnover and a 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining.

After Sadie Mehrman missed two free throws with 12 seconds remaining, the Lynx had two opportunities to win the game, but missed two field goal attempts in the final seconds.

“I guess the message at the time was we had an opportunity. The talk on the sideline was just win the next possession,” Kolsrud said. “There's no 11-point play to get back into it, whether that's getting a defensive stop or the rebound, attacking the paint on offense. You just got to keep trying. You got to keep playing as hard as you can for 32 minutes and our kids bought into that. Yes we started to get a few things off of our full court pressure and it gave us some momentum. We were able to capitalize it right down the stretch there.”

Terveen, who led the team in scoring in last year’s title game against the Lynx, did it again Saturday night with 21 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field, including 3-of-6 3-pointers. She also had three steals.

“We caused some turnovers towards the end. To finish out the game, I would say, just seeing we were down and not wanting to lose, gave us that motivation to push,” said Terveen.

Moore finished with 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 2-of-6 3-pointers. As a team, the Knights were 18-of-48 from the field, 5-of-17 from 3-point range, but only 6-of-14 free throws.

“We just kept battling. We just kept fighting. We just tried to win one possession at a time and we continued to do that,” Kolsrud said. We started to get a few steals and get some easy baskets and kind of loosened things up a little bit to have that opportunity for Ruby to do what she did down the stretch.”

Brandon Valley, 21-3, was led by Padgett with 12 points and Lease with 11. The Lynx were 17-of-47 from the field, 4-of-11 3-pointers and 8-of-15 from the line. Bandon Valley outrebounded O’Gorman 39-26 with Salter leading the way with nine boards.

“What a great team, a great program,” Kolsrud said of Brandon Valley. “Mike Zerr does a great job with those kids and that staff and they just kept fighting. We just kept fighting.”