Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Tuesday’s game at st. Bernard’s.

By Ray Hamill — The St. Bernard’s and Fortuna girls both saw their North Coast Section championship challenge come to an end on Tuesday night, as both schools lost their Division-3 semifinals.

The Crusaders, who were seeded No. 1 in the bracket, hosted No. 5 Dougherty Valley and lost a game that went right down to the wire by a score of 47-45.

The No. 6 Huskies traveled to play No. 2 Saint Mary’s and fell 63-36.

Both teams, however, are not done yet and the two league rivals will face off against each other in the bracket third-place game this weekend, with the winner advancing to next week’s NorCal playoffs.

That game is scheduled for Friday night at St. Bernard’s, with tip off set for 7 p.m. 

In an entertaining matchup at St. Bernard’s, the host Crusaders enjoyed the better of the early exchanges and led by five late in the opening quarter.

But the Wildcats would settle into the game and would close out the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a one-point lead (12-11).

The first half was a half of runs and the Crusaders quickly rediscovered their shooting touch, opening the second quarter on a 12-0 run to take an 11-point lead midway through the period (23-12).

The final three minutes of the first half belonged to the visitors, who began to find their rhythm from 3-point range and went on an 8-0 run to close out the half and cut the deficit to just three (23-20) at the break.

The Wildcats would start the second half in much the same way as they closed out the first half, opening with seven straight points to stretch their impressive run to 15-0 and take a four-point lead.

The rest of the third quarter was back and forth and the Wildcats held a slender two-point advantage going into the fourth quarter (35-33).

Too many stray passes on offense and missed opportunities plagued the Crusaders for much of the night and they found themselves seven points adrift early in the fourth, but they never allowed the visitors to pull away and continued to battle.

At the defensive end, the Crusaders held the Wildcats scoreless over the final three minutes of the game, but were unable to fully close the gap despite creating some turnovers on defense.

A disappointing night at the free-throw line and from 3-point range ultimately proved costly.

“Tough night for the Lady Crusaders as we went 6-of-16 from the free-throw line and 3-of-15 from the 3-point line, and had 21 turnovers,” head coach Matt Tomlin said. “Despite all the struggles, the ladies played hard, fought their way back at the end and had a chance to win at the buzzer.

“I am always proud of these amazing Lady Crusaders.”

Laila Florvilus scored a team-high 18 points for the Crusaders, while Samantha Sundberg and Carli Baum each added eight points and Aliyah Vigil chipped in five points.

The loss was just the second on the season for the SB girls and it ended their 19-game unbeaten run.

It was also the team’s second straight semifinal loss in NCS play, having also fallen at this stage a year ago before rallying to win a state championship.

“We are looking forward to our opportunity to participate in the state playoff qualifier on Friday night,” Tomlin said. “These girls are hungry to get back and have a chance to defend their state title.”

The Huskies also suffered their first playoff loss after two impressive road wins last week to reach the section semifinals.

The host Panthers shot the ball well on the way to victory and took advantage of some Fortuna mistakes.

“It was a tough game tonight against a very aggressive and athletic Saint Mary’s team,” Fortuna head coach Tom Chapman said. “We struggled with turnovers that they converted to points.”

Jorlynn Villalvazo and Evalynn Little both scored a team-high eight points for Fortuna, while Mariah Bravo added seven points and Jaydyn Dalton chipped in five points.

Piper Murray also played some inspirational basketball in the loss.

“Jaydyn Dalton and Piper Murray came off the bench tonight and played really well,” Fortuna head coach Tom Chapman said. “Piper was diving on the floor for every loose ball … Jaydyn took over at point guard and made things happen for us attacking the basket and facilitating.”

Murray also had some big rebounds and a big 3-point basket.

“Overall we played hard and never gave up,” Chapman added. “We knew coming in this would be a challenging game for us. The team will learn from this and keep going.”