Las Vegas - The finality of it all hits a team like a ton of bricks. Especially when the club is as close as the Yerington High boys basketball team.
Yerington's season came to a sudden end on Friday at the Orleans Arena in a 68-52 loss to Faith Lutheran in the NIAA 3A State semifinals. Faith Lutheran (25-3) advances to meet Dayton at 5 p.m. today in the title game at the Orleans.
The Yerington (22-8) players had a hard time believing it was over in the locker room after the game and the word that kept coming up was family.
"It's tough," junior point guard Ryan Rife said. "We're like a family. Everybody is close. We've played together since we were little. No one likes to lose, especially when you give it everything you have."
Senior Dylan Johnson had one phrase to describe his feelings after the game.
"Heart broken," he said. "We worked too hard to get beat in the first round. But we did our best. There's nothing else we could do. I don't have any regrets. We're just so close, we're like a family."
The Lions couldn't overcome a first quarter in which they fell behind 21-8. Yerington played on even terms with Faith Lutheran over the last three quarters as they kept trying to come back, but couldn't move any closer than nine points.
"We came out, I think, a little nervous," Yerington coach Daron Wildermuth said. "We had quite a few turnovers to start the ball game. I think that was more nerves than anything else.
"When you have to keep battling back against a quality team like that, that's really tough."
Mikey Burt scored to give Yerington a 2-0 lead before Faith Lutheran went on an 8-0 run to take an 8-2 lead. Rife hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 8-5 but the Crusaders dominated the rest of the quarter on their way to taking a 21-8 lead.
Yerington fell behind by 18 points at 30-12, but didn't fold. Scott Veil scored inside on a pass from Rife to make it 30-14. David Hitchcock scored on a putback as Yerington pulled to within 32-19.
A Jeremy Means basket helped stop a run to make it 35-21 before Faith Lutheran pulled away to lead 39-23. Burt hit a jumper off the glass to close the halftime deficit to 39-25.
That began a 7-0 run as Rife hit a three and Johnson scored to cut the deficit to 39-30 to begin the third quarter. The Crusaders regained control to go up 51-34 before Yerington made one more push.
Burt stripped the ball away and went coast-to-coast for a layup and Johnson hit a three as Yerington closed to within 55-45 after three quarters. Rife hit a pull-up jumper in the lane to make it 57-47, but the Lions just didn't have enough in the tank to seriously threaten the Crusaders.
Rife had 16 points, Johnson scored 15 points and Burt added 10 points.
"None of my kids gave up," Wildermuth said. "A coach can't ask for anything more than that."