NATCHEZ — Despite taking the lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Cathedral High School girls went scoreless in the final two and a half minutes of play against West Lincoln.

The results were a 37-32 loss in the first round of the MHSAA Region 7-1A tournament Tuesday night, ending Cathedral’s season with a 3-22 record.

“We played them pretty good,” Cathedral girls head coach Randy Smith said. “It got close, and they got on the free throw line quicker than us, and they made a lot of free throws.”

Six of West Lincoln’s final eight points of the game came on free throws, while the Lady Bears were not called for any fouls in the final five minutes of regulation.

“You just have to try to protect the lead, and we were trying to,” Smith said. “It was still kind of early in the game. We had some shot selection that we probably could have re-done.”

Trailing 27-21 entering the fourth quarter, Cathedral’s Ginny Daggett hit back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game with 6:55 remaining. The Lady Green Wave’s McKenzie Milligan gave Cathedral the lead with 6:32 remaining by sinking one of two free throws, but West Lincoln’s Marisa Prushi tied it up again on a free throw with 6:02 remaining.

Daggett gave Cathedral a 30-28 lead with 5:15 remaining on two foul shots. West Lincoln’s Beth Montgomery hit a free throw with 3:21 left, but Cathedral’s Mackenzie Watts sank a layup off a steal, making it 32-29 Cathedral with 2:54 left.

But the Lady Green Wave’s offense went cold, and Cathedral started racking up fouls in the final minutes of play. Prushi was sent to the free throw line with 2:49 left on a controversial call when her legs got tangled up with Daggett’s. Both players ended up on the ground, but Daggett was called for the foul.

Prushi then made both of her foul shots, cutting Cathedral’s lead to 32-31.

West Lincoln took the lead for good on two free throws by Montgomery with 1:46 remaining. Prushi added two more free throws with 54 seconds left, and Heather Moak hit a two-pointer with 14 seconds remaining.

Cathedral came out in the second quarter down 21-15, and the Lady Green Wave switched to man-to-man defense, throwing West Lincoln off balance. Both teams managed just six points in the third quarter.

“They were kind of holding it, and we thought we could put a little pressure on them and maybe get the ball back,” Smith said.

Daggett led Cathedral in scoring with 14 points. Kennedy Gray had six points for the Lady Green Wave, and Milligan tallied five points.

Prushi scored 11 points for West Lincoln, and Moak had 10 points. Montgomery tallied nine points for the Lady Bears.