Heritage Christian Academy saw their bid for the program’s first girls’ state basketball title fall one game short as they fell to Trinity Christian of Lexington 34-25 Saturday at Asbury University.
Trinity used a 12-0 second half run to turn a 19-16 deficit into a 28-19 lead with 6:15 left. Heritage would get to within seven points but no closer.
Both teams struggled to score early, the result of jitters. Heritage led 4-2 after one quarter and 10-8 at halftime.
However, the balanced scoring that helped the Lady Warriors win their semifinal game with Oak Ridge wasn’t present in the title game. Rachel West scored 18 straight points for Heritage Christian at one point. Chelsea Dortch scored five points, and Abbi Bullock scored two.
Hope Flournoy didn’t score but pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds, and Meredith Crunk added eight rebounds. The problem was, HCA couldn’t score.
Lauren Thomas and tournament MVP Hannah Mattingly led Trinity Christian with eight points.
West and Dortch were both named to the All-Tournament Team.
The trip to the KCAA championship game was the first for Heritage Christian, whose season ends with a record of 23-10.