CLARION — Maura McCaslin pulled her jersey top over her face to hide her tears.

Jenna McCorry bit her lower lip, her face red and wet with tears.

Alex Guercio couldn't hold back her feelings, either.

For the Moniteau girls basketball team, Tuesday night was an evening of emotional swings.

The Warriors went from excitement to dumbfounderment to resolve to exhilaration and then, ultimately, to despair in a 41-38 loss to Kane in the District 9 Class AA playoffs at Clarion High School.

"I tried to tell them I was proud of them," said Moniteau coach Mark Yeager. "But they wouldn't hear it. It just stinks it had to end like this."

The Warriors (17-7) nearly pulled off a monumental comeback.

After the teams played to an 8-8 tie in the first quarter, Kane scored 18 unanswered points to take a 26-8 lead with less than a minute remaining before halftime.

Moniteau committed 14 turnovers during that span and managed to get off only six shots from the field.

But McCaslin drove to the hoop for a pair of layups in the final minute to send Moniteau into halftime facing a 28-12 deficit.

In the locker room, Yeager pulled out his best pep talk.

"I questioned their guts," Yeager said. "And they responded."

Slowly, the lead shrank. It dwindled to 13 points late in the third quarter, then to 10 at the end of the period.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Moniteau had closed to 36-32. It had Kane coach David Kiehl sweating through the back of his shirt.

"I told the girls at halftime that there was no way those Moniteau girls were going to hang it up" Kiehl said. "But I'm proud of the girls. They hung tough there and overcame some adversity."

After going 8-of-8 from the free-throw line in the first three quarters, the Wolves struggled mightily from the stripe in the fourth.

Kane (18-5) missed the front end of three one-and-one situations and was 1-of-7 from the line in the final minutes of the game.

Guercio hit a leaning jumper with 1:34 remaining to tie the game at 38. She pumped her fists wildly after the shot.

But Chelsea Mague answered for the Wolves with a baseline jumper that gave Kane a 40-38 lead with 1:15 left.

Moniteau could not tie the game again, missing its final three shots from the field.

"They worked so hard to get back in it. I just have to say, they didn't have anything left," Yeager said.

Guercio finished with 17 points and McCaslin added 11.

Yeager said McCaslin will be hard to replace.

"We try to tell these kids all the time thatMaura McCaslin was not born a great basketball player," he said. "She was born a great athlete, but she worked to become a great basketball player."

Despite the loss, Yeager has no quibbles with what his team accomplished this season.

The Warriors had won just 14 games the last two seasons before breaking through this year.

"When the season started, I thought .500 and get into the playoffs," Yeager said. "We had a team of inexperienced players, but to go 14-3 in the league — I was just tickled to death."

MONITEAU 38Alex Guercio 7-11 3-8 17, Jenna McCorry 1-4 2-2 4, Maura McCaslin 4-8 2-4 11, Kathleen Harding 1-3 2-4 4, Chelsea Say 0-2 0-0 0, Chelsea Seller 0-3 2-2 2, Jaryn Beatty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 13-32 11-20 38

KANE 41Ashley Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Chelsea Mague 4-8 1-5 9, Natalie Kusback 3-7 0-1 6, Andrea Saquin 4-5 0-1 8, Emily Carlson 0-2 2-2 2, Bree Bergman 4-12 4-4 12, Kalie Walter 1-4 2-2 4. Totals: 16-38 9-15 41

Moniteau 8 4 11 15—38Kane 8 20 6 7—413-point goals: McCaslin