The girls basketball playoff run came to a dramatic end in the second round on March 5 against West Linn, 56-55.

The game went down to the wire, and it looked like Cleveland might just advance to the final eight, but the Lions pulled out the victory in the last seconds.

Team captains and seniors made the season such a great environment and experience for the team and even though the season has come to a close for the Warriors, they certainly did not go down without a fight. There were 16 lead changes in the game, which is far from normal.

Despite losing, Cleveland coach Poeko Waiwaiole said, “It was probably the best high school basketball game I’ve ever been associated with.”

The girls played hard and they did not take this loss from lack of effort.

Addy Huss had two free throws with 11 seconds left in the game to put us up one again, but the Lions were able to get the go-ahead basket. It went back and forth throughout.

“We ended up losing, but not because we choked, but it was because they (West Linn) did the same thing we did, they rose to the occasion,” said Waiwaiole.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Waiwaiole said.

There were lots of people in the crowd especially, making noise and potentially distracting some players, but the Warriors didn’t let that get in the way of their performance. They zoned in, did the best they could and walked away from a fantastic run.

West Linn and Cleveland were pretty equal teams in terms of skill and effort in this game and it showed.