CLARION — Members of the Moniteau girls basketball team choked back tears minutes after their dream of a District 9 title was dashed.

Katie Brehm wiped her damp eyes and Amanda Sloan buried her head into her palms.

Winning a district title was the No. 1 goal for these feisty Warriors, who got to the championship game against Cranberry at Clarion University Friday night on the strength of a staunch defense.

In this 52-33 loss, it was actually their offense that betrayed them.

“I wasn't happy with the way we were coming down and shooting so fast,” said Moniteau coach Mark Yeager, who had hoped to take a patient approach to limit Cranberry possessions. “I called a timeout and asked them, ‘Did someone put in a 15-second shot clock that I wasn't aware of?' We went right back out there and kept shooting it up.”

Part of that had to do with the tempo the Berries set on both ends of the floor.

Cranberry (23-1) was determined to hound Moniteau ballhandlers on defense and go inside to its two big girls, Sune Swart and Lauren Hogue, on offense.

Both plans worked well.

Still, the Warriors trailed by just three points early in the second quarter.

But then, the wheels came off.

Cranberry scored 12 of the next 13 points to take a 22-8 lead and never led by fewer than 11 points the rest of the way.

“Since midway through the season, we've avoided that bad spurt,” Yeager said. “Early (in the season) when we were struggling, we'd have that bad quarter or bad five minutes. For the last eight to 10 games, we've avoided that and then tonight we didn't. They probably had something to do with it.”

The win is the fourth straight district championship for Cranberry.

Hogue scored 13 points and added 13 rebounds and Swart scored 12 points and grabbed seven boards.

Sophomore guard Emily Merryman dropped in 13 points for the Berries as well.

Cranberry coach Chrissy Shumaker was concerned coming into the game because of a nearly two-week layoff.

“We didn't want the two-week thing to be an excuse,” Shumaker said. “But it affected us. It did. That's one of those things that are out of our control.”

Cranberry will have another week off before its first PIAA game — something Shumaker is not looking forward to.

“The good thing about them is they have that internal drive,” Shumaker said. “I think we can get it done at practice.”

Moniteau, too, will have a week off before its first state playoff game.

That helped soften the blow of the loss a bit, especially for the seniors, Yeager said.

“The last couple of weeks, when we knew we were out of the (Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference) race, this became our goal,” Yeager said. “If we play the way we are capable, I think we can win a couple of state playoff games.”

Heather Porter paced Moniteau with 12 points.

It wasn't a good shooting night for the Warriors.

Moniteau was a mere 14-of-44 from the field and hit a mere 22 percent of its shots in the first half.

“I knew we were going to have to play our best game,” Yeager said. “We didn't.”

MONITEAU 33Fontaine Glenn 2-5 0-0 4, Ashley Brehm 1-9 0-0 2, Heather Porter 5-14 1-2 12, Amanda Sloan 2-7 0-0 5, Katie Brehm 3-4 1-2 7, Brittany Wright 1-1 0-0 2, Nikki Yeckel 0-3 1-2 1, Emily Rider 0-1 0-0 0.

Totals: 14-44 3-6 33.

CRANBERRY 52Kylie Mason 6-15 0-0 12, Emily Merryman 5-13 3-4 13, Julie Swartzfager 1-3 0-0 2, Lauren Hogue 6-6 1-3 13, Sune Swart 6-8 0-0 12, Ashley Groner 0-0 0-0 0, Maggie Kahle 0-0 0-0 0, Adrien Sponenburgh 0-0 0-0 0, Maddie Hepler 0-1 0-0 0, Mollie Carothers 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24-46 4-7 52.

Moniteau 5 6 11 11—33Cranberry 10 14 16 12—523-point goals: Moniteau 2 (Porter, Sloan); Cranberry 0.

Friday: Moniteau vs. TBD in first round of PIAA Class AA playoffs