After rising to number four in the state, the girls basketball team fell in the second round to unranked Tyler Lee in over time, 60-57.

“I was really just in shock because the whole time I wasn’t thinking, ‘oh easy win,’ but I was thinking this is a good year for us – we are gonna go to the third round,” junior shooting guard Nikyla Green said.

Though unranked, players said they quickly realized Tyler Lee had really good players and had come to win.

“I realized we couldn’t mess around, and we actually gotta play,” Green said. “After we missed the last shot and the clock ran out it really hit me, but I didn’t cry until I saw the fans cheering for us.”

After draining a three point shot, Tyler Lee’s best player iced the game by putting them up late in overtime.

“I think defensively we stopped them and caused them to turn the ball over, but at the end, offensively, we just weren’t aggressive,” Head Coach Kelly Dansby said.

Even with one senior regularly starting and two freshman, the Eagles were able to climb into the top five in the state, setting them up for what they believe will be a great season next year.

“Having such a young team we will be able to run much faster than teams,” junior shooting guard Skye Dugan said. “We will have freshman who have playoff experience and will know how to handle situations in crunch times.”

Players said even though the season didn’t end as they wanted, they made big gains from last year.

“It was a good season this year – we did incredibly well compared to last year,” Dugan said. “I think us being ranked gave us this extra confidence that we had something to prove this year.”

Going into next, players said expectations will only become greater.

“If we all work on our skill level, then we can do a lot and go way deeper in the playoffs,” Green said.