Late run in district contest comes up short against defending state champs

A fourth-quarter surge in Friday's D1-7 girls' district final led to overtime for Summerland.

But at the end of the extra period, the Bobcats fell one point shy of knocking off the defending Class D1 state champion Centura.

Adyson's Mlnarik fadeaway three-pointer, with under five seconds remaining on the clock, fell shy. Lydia Robertson leapt out of bounds and tossed the ball back into play, but the scoreboard's buzzer - and the rush of Centura's crowd to mid-court - told the story.

Centurions, 50. Bobcats, 49.

It was a game fans on both sides of the court won't soon forget.

"Our team was extremely resilient in the district final game against Centura on Friday night," said Bobcat head coach Jacob Birch." To be down by 12 points with six minutes left and to have the character, mental toughness, unity and absolute guts to come back and force overtime says everything about the type of players we had on our team this year."

The Bobcats' theme for this season was "guts."

"They certainly exemplified that on Friday night and all season. I couldn't be prouder of the group; they were incredibly humble, coachable and tough all season long," Birch said.

The Bobcats trailed 10-3 in the first quarter until Ella Bolling sank a three-point shot. At the break, the Bobcats were down 18-12.

Centura looked poised to contain the Bobcats after landing seven of 10 shots in the third quarter, but Summerland had other things in mind.

"A big part of the success of our team this season was everyone being willing to accept their roles and to put the team ahead of themselves. In addition to this, we had outstanding leadership this season and that really led us to a successful year," Birch said.

In other words, the Bobcats knew what needed to be done to win this game: dominate the fourth quarter.

Dominate, they did, going on an 18-4 run in the final quarter, fueled by 16 points between Mlnarik and Lydia Robertson and a powerful blocked shot by Caydence Schumacher.

From the charity stripe, the Bobcats shot 71%, making 15 of 21 attempts.

Buckets, it seemed, wouldn't fall the Bobcats' way.

Summerland made only eight of 30 two-point shots and six of 20 shots beyond the three-point arc.

Mlnarik, a senior, finished with 23 points. Fellow senior Preslie Robertson picked off three steals.

Summerland finishes its season with a 17-7 record.

Birch praised his squad's leadership throughout the season.

"They did everything we asked them to do and were unbelievably coachable and tough. We had great players ... The team as a whole really bought into playing with guts and made this a great season," Birch said.