Last Saturday, the Ladycats met up in the quarterfinals of the CIF State playoffs against Canyon Springs High School. Only a few weeks earlier, the team dismantled Canyon Springs, 55- 36, on their way to the CIF-SS 1AA final. However, this time the team lost 63-53. Not only did the Ladycats lose the chance of capturing the state title but also lost the chance of a getting a rematch against the Mater Dei Monarchs.

It was a train wreck waiting to happen. After CIF-SS 1AA released its playoff brackets, everyone focused on the number one and number two seeds as they routed their opponents on the way to the final. Finally, on March 3, BOHS, ranked number one in the nation, met up with Mater Dei High School, ranked number two in the nation, as the rivals met up for the first time this season.

This game was perhaps the most highly anticipated game of the entire tournament, if not the entire year, as 5,782 fans were on hand at the Anaheim Convention Center to watch a matchup that featured four players in the ESPNU top 100 prospects in the nation.

The Wildcats were led by UCLA-bound, Justine Hartman, senior, who is ranked fifth overall in the country. The Monarchs featured a star of their own as Connecticut-bound Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, senior, is the number one prospect in the nation.

For the history of the two powerhouse programs, it was the eighth appearance in the final for Mater Dei, while the Ladycats made their 24th. The two teams have met in the playoffs before but never this early, as the Ladycats defeated the Monarchs in the 2009 Regional State Finals on their way to a state championship.

Going into the game undefeated, the team knew they had their work cut out for them.

“We expected a difficult game, but we still had the confidence to win,” said Jasmine Ruidera, junior. “The coaches came up with a great game plan and if we could have executed it better, the game would not have been as hard to win.”

The Monarchs shut down the Ladycats’ post play, as the team had difficulty getting the ball inside to Hartman, who only scored six points on the night. Defensively the Ladycats had trouble shutting down the prolific offense of the Monarchs who were scoring an average of 70 points per game in the playoffs.

“Part of our game plan was to stop their two superstars, and definitely rebound,” said Ruidera; however, Mosqueda-Lewis was able to put in 12 points while her teammate, USC-bound Alexyz Vaioletama, senior, scored 11 points.

After opening the game with a four point lead, the Ladycats offense stalled as they were unable to score again for the rest of the first quarter, and headed into the second period down 16-4.

However, Alexis Perry, senior, who scored a game high 22 points, helped the Ladycats get back into the game, as her seven points in the second quarter cut the lead to 20-16 with three minutes left in the first half.

With a four point lead, the Monarchs closed the half strong as they were able to make a buzzerbeater, sending the Ladycats into the locker room trailing by a score of 32-25.

Coming out of the half, Perry continued to dominate on offense for the Ladycats, but her effort was not enough to cut the lead as the team went into the final quarter of play trailing 50-38.

“I felt like every possession was a critical moment,” said Perry. “There was a lot of pressure heading into this game to maintain our number one ranking.”

In the final quarter of play, the Ladycats began what looked to be a historic comeback in the making. With less than two minutes to play the team managed to pull within five points.

The players’ confidence in their chance of a comeback stemmed from last season as Amanda Arter, senior, stated, “We lost a game last year because the other team scored six points in a minute, so I was hoping we could do the same thing this year.”

However this was the closest the team got to changing the lead as Mater Dei responded, ending the game with a final score of 63-58.

Keitra Wallace, junior, who scored 12 points in the game, stated, “During the final plays of the game, I was trying to do anything I could to get us closer to their score, but I missed some freethrows. As the final minute was going on, I just wished that my team did not have to feel the pain that we did at the end of last season.”

Although the Ladycats earned the title of CIF-SS 1AA Finalists and a spot in the CIF State playoffs, the team was disappointed in the loss.

“I do not know how to describe it. I was hurt because I knew they were not a better team than us,” said Perry on the team’s loss.

“Our team was anxious,” said Ruidera, on the possible rematch. “It was all we thought about every practice and every game. We wanted to win so we can make it to semifinals with them again.”

The defeat against Canyon Springs has brought an abrupt end to a season for the Ladycats. The historic matchup between the Ladycats and Monarchs will have to wait until next winter.