MONTGOMERY CITY, Mo. - North Callaway head coach Morgan Beamer embraced every Ladybirds player as they exited the locker room at Montgomery County High School on Friday night.
"Walking into that locker room was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, seeing all of those girls cry," Beamer said with tears in her eyes. " I'm going to hug my girls while they all come out."
Every player met her with a similar sentiment.
"Excellent job," Beamer told each player. "Excellent job. Excellent job."
Moments before, No. 2 seed North Callaway's season concluded after a crushing 62-60 overtime loss to No. 1 Lutheran St. Charles in the Class 3, District 7 title game.
The Ladybirds (19-9) trailed the Lady Cougars by five points with less than 11 seconds to go in the extra period. North Callaway passed the ball around until junior guard Nicole Emmons knocked down a 3-pointer to make it a two-point game and the Ladybirds were forced to foul with :03.5 remaining.
Lutheran senior guard Kelsi Durkee proceeded to miss both free throws, giving North Callaway a chance to either pull off a dramatic victory or send the game to a second overtime. The Ladybirds grabbed the rebound and rifled it downcourt to sophomore guard Kenzie Ausfahl, who was standing a few feet behind the 3-point line.
Ausfahl could not get a shot off before time expired and the Lady Cougars (19-8) celebrated their district championship.
"In my head I was wishing I had a timeout, but I didn't," Beamer said. "I told my girls what they had to do. I spotted up my best 3-point shooter that I had, and told them, 'When you get the rebound, you have two dribbles and you have to chuck it.'
"At that point it's a Hail Mary, and unfortunately we weren't able to hit that tonight."
Lutheran made eight of its 11 free throws in overtime to outscore North Callaway 11-9.
The Lady Cougars took a 39-33 advantage into the fourth quarter, but had to force overtime when sophomore guard Ashley Ernstmeyer scored on a putback with :10.1 remaining in regulation to tie the game at 51-all. The Ladybirds had a chance to win on their final possession, but threw the ball out of bounds as time expired.
North Callaway started the fourth quarter with a 10-2 run - capped off by a 3-pointer from junior guard Reyna Schmauch - to go in front 43-40 with 5:25 left in regulation.
The Ladybirds committed 15 of their 25 turnovers in the first half, but were only down 27-23 at the break. Lutheran started the second half with a 7-0 run to push its lead to 34-23 with 5:03 left in the third quarter. North Callaway answered by outscoring the Lady Cougars 10-5 to close within six points to begin the fourth quarter.
"In the final quarter and a half (of regulation), we started playing our tempo finally," Beamer said. "For the first half, we played theirs and we were still within four. That was pretty impressive.
"Coming out of half, I knew we had to push it. We had to pick the pace up a little bit and push the tempo, so then they would make errors like we were making errors earlier."
Junior guard Kyla Bertschinger tallied a game-high 20 points to direct three players in double figures for the Ladybirds, who shot 41 percent (21-of-51) from the field. Ausfahl provided 14 points and junior forward Allie Schlueter finished with 13.
Senior guard Emily Hall topped Lutheran - which shot just 36 percent (19-of-53) as a team - with 15 points. Senior guard Sarah Malterer came up with 14 points.
Beamer reflected on her first year as a head coach and is eager to see what her returning roster can accomplish next season.
"I'm really proud of my girls and the season that they had," Beamer said. "They fought every second of every single game we played, so on that part of it, I'm really proud of them. I'm one happy coach in that aspect.
"I think next season, we know that we're fast and we have to play fast at all times. And we have to rebound the ball, and that we have to play hard at all times."
Lutheran now advances to a Class 3 sectional game at Moberly Area Community College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.