EL RENO — Tears flooded their eyes as they shook hands with El Reno before watching the Indians claim the Region 3 championship plaque.
Moments earlier, it appeared the Eisenhower girls would be holding that hardware, but thanks to what turned out to be the game-winning layup by Emily Bellymule with four seconds left, No. 7 El Reno snatched the plaque from Ike, winning 46-45.
"It's tough. When you get in these positions, you have to take care of business," Ike coach Daniel Wall said. "You've gotta finish. It's not guaranteed that you're ever going to get back there. Still, I'm proud of them. The girls fought hard and didn't quit."
Against full court pressure, Ike pushed the ball and got a decent look at the buzzer, but Delicia Brown's 3-pointer on the wing for the win didn't fall and for the fourth time this season, the Lady Eagles came up one point short of a win.
As painful as the agony of defeat was on Saturday, Ike has made significant strides in the past month and leaps and bounds since this situation last season.
"Last year, we got beat by 20 or so in the regional championship by Shawnee," Wall said. "This year losing by one after being up one in the final seconds shows me that we're improving and getting better -- especially by almost taking down a really good El Reno team."
The Lady Eagles -- much like the MacArthur girls who blew a late lead at Piedmont on Saturday -- had the regional title within reach.
Instead of Ike and MacArthur playing in an Area title game next week where the winner would've gone to the state tournament, the Eagles and Highlanders will now duke it out in an Area elimination playoff game next week for all the marbles.
"I'm excited. They are well-coached and beat us three times, but it's going to be tough to beat us a fourth time," Wall said. "We had them on the ropes last game and turnovers got us. So I hope that we've learned from it."
After holding a narrow lead for much of the second and third quarter, the Lady Eagles found themselves trailing 44-40 with 1:30 left in the game.
Multiple turnovers had stalled the offense and it appeared the game was out of reach.
But Ginger Reece -- who scored nine of her 11 points in the second half -- wove into the paint to convert an acrobatic three-point play to trim the lead to one.
An Ike trap seconds later led to another Reece layup, which gave Ike a 45-44 lead. El Reno then proceeded to turn the ball over a second straight possession, putting Ike in the driver's seat.
"We've been in this position several times this year. It's a good thing that we are right there," Wall said. "We could've laid down late in the fourth when we were down with four in crunch time, but the girls fought back. Bang, bang, we were right back in it."
Ike milked the clock in the final minute until they were fouled with 16 seconds left. Jada Laster -- who scored nine points thanks to a trio of triples -- missed the front end of a one-and-one bonus shot, giving El Reno a prime opportunity with the ball back in the final seconds.
"Gotta knock 'em down," Wall said. "If she makes those two free throws we win."
And the Indians took advantage. Bellymule wound up with the ball and drove into the paint, getting an off-balanced layup to go with 4.3 seconds left as the home crowd erupted.
Deflated, Ike tried to regroup by using its final timeout. Ike was able to break the pressure and push the ball to Delicia Brown, who chipped in seven points, but her potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer was long leaving Ike with nothing to show for its valiant effort.
Ike (7-17) played one of its better games of the season as they led the seventh ranked team in the state 21-20 at half and 33-29 late in the third quarter.
But like so many times this season, the Eagles couldn't quite finish.Bellymule's game-winner were her only points of the ball game.
El Reno (16-9) was led by Jolie Woods' 15 points which mostly came off of easy layups at the rim. Hayden Freeman chipped in 10 more for the Indians.
Jaeda Reed was dominant when she was on the court, scoring at will in the paint. She led the Eagles with 12 points, but was plagued by foul trouble.
After scoring four straight points to open the fourth quarter, Reed picked up her fifth foul with 5:30 left to go and Ike struggled to score until Reece came alive for five straight to reclaim the lead. Reed had picked up her third foul before half and her fourth right out of the locker room.
"That killed us," Wall said. "She has to stay out of foul trouble because when she's in there, she's tough in the paint and is a huge part of our offense. We have to be a bit smarter with fouls there in the first half and at the end, we would've been in a much better place."
Eisenhower and MacArthur will face each other in the Area playoffs next Thursday night, at a site that is still to be announced.
The loser of the game will be finished for the season while the winner will take on a regional champion on Saturday with a state tournament ticket on the line.