File photos

Two teams that have become very familiar with each other in recent years faced off for a North Coast section championship on Saturday night.

The Ferndale Wildcats traveled to Antioch to play Cornerstone Christian for the Division-6 girls title, and it was the home team that prevailed, winning comfortably 69-50.

This was the fourth championship showdown in five years between the two programs, who have now won twice each.

The Cats were the No. 2 seeds and defending section champs, but Saturday night belonged to the Cougars, who came ready to play and never let up.

After losing last year’s final at Ferndale High School, the top-seeded Cornerstone Christian girls made sure there would be no disappointment this time around with a strong finish to the game to see them over the finish line.

There was little to separate the two schools in a back-and-forth and physical opening half, and the home team carried just a slender three-point lead (29-26) into the break.

But a hot-shooting Cougars team began to put some distance between the two schools in the third quarter, and the Cats had trouble matching them.

Cornerstone led by as many 15 in the third quarter, but the visitors closed out the period strong to pull within nine going into the fourth and give themselves a shot at a comeback.

However, it wasn’t to be for the Little 4 school, and the Cougars would end the game as a contest long before the final buzzer, stretching the advantage to 18 barely three minutes into the fourth quarter.

File photo

File photo

“It seemed like we missed probably 10 layups and shot 10 of 21 from the free-throw line, and when we missed on one side they would come down and score,” Ferndale head coach Chris Ardrey said. “But I’m proud of the kids for fighting all the way. All the girls did.”

Senior captain Tinnley Pidgeon had a big night despite the loss and finished with a team-high 18 points, while Micheala Ellsmore added eight points and Madison Gossi chipped in seven points.

“We fought till the last second, but I just think that with us missing those easy shots, we could have been up a bunch (at halftime) instead of down by three,” Ardrey said. “We definitely needed our ‘A’ game to beat a team like that, and we didn’t bring it, and that’s on me.

“We just couldn’t get in our rhythm in the second half and we paid the price.”

The good news for Ferndale is that the loss does not end the season.

The Wildcats have qualified for next week’s state playoffs and will find out their seed and opening-round opponent on Sunday.

With the win, the Cougars improved to 24-7, while the Wildcats dropped to 19-10.