A day after having another team come back against them in the fourth quarter, the Centralia girls did just that on Saturday.

Centralia Girls Final Four Photo Gallery

The Lady Panthers moved to the third-place game at the Class 3 Final Four at Mizzou Arena in Columbia after No. 1 El Dorado Springs’ big comeback in the fourth quarter and then ended their season on a high note with a 36-34 victory over St. Pius X (Festus). In the Centralia program’s first ever state Final Four, the girls managed to win despite trailing until around three minutes left in the game.

Head coach Megan Brinkmann, who was named a co-coach of the year in Class 3 District 7 after going to her first Final Four, said after the previous day’s loss that El Dorado Springs came back late with a strong 26-9 fourth quarter similar to what the Lady Panthers have done this season. Even in the Lady Panthers’ first game, where nerves tend to be an issue, Brinkmann said she liked how her team approached it and the weekend.

“It was our composure,” Brinkmann said when asked what impressed her about her team. “We get down there, it’s bright and you see everybody from your town there so it was composure and how we showed up.”

Ryenn Gordon, the freshman who had earned Class 3 District 7 honors along with Braylin Brunkhorst and Raegan Anderson, followed her 15-point Final-Four debut with seven points and seven rebounds against St. Pius X (Festus), including the game-tying 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the fourth quarter. It was one of four Centralia 3-pointers in the final period after not hitting a single shot from beyond the arc all game.

Anderson hit two 3-pointers, including one with 4:21 left to cut Centralia’s deficit to 31-29, but put back a miss for her 2-point game-winning bucket with 1:24 left. She finished with eight points and four rebounds (three offensive) and added the final touches to her single-season school-record of 85 3-pointers. 

Brunkhorst led the Lady Panthers with 12 points, five rebounds and two steals, Morgan Ross added seven points and five rebounds, and Shelby Lewis had six rebounds and three steals.

Centralia ended the game with a better 37.5 shooting percentage than the 31 percent by St. Pius X (Festus) despite going cold from the field in the second quarter. An 11-7 deficit after the first quarter turned into a 21-10 halftime deficit due to Centralia going 1-for-12 from the field in the second quarter. 

Before they stepped on a court where some of the best in the nation have competed, the Lady Panthers felt how special their season has been. The day before, the team held a pep rally open to the public and then did walkthroughs at several district schools the morning of its semifinal game before being sent off. They said the support was incredible those days, like it has been all season.

“Going through the community (Friday) and seeing all of their support and everyone out in the stands — I mean, the stands are packed with black and white — it means a lot to us,” Ross said. “It means a lot to the community for us to be here and watch us. For future Panthers, it means a lot to watch us and be excited for girls basketball.”

A whole section in Mizzou Arena was covered in black and white during Centralia’s games, and the Lady Panther fans brought different paraphernalia, including even rally towels, along with their brimming enthusiasm.

“We knew we had a lot of support coming into this, but when we went through all of the schools this morning, little kids were just screaming up and down the hallways,” Lewis said. “You realize how much the community backs you and has supported you the whole way. That makes you extremely grateful for all of the support you did have.”

Former Lady Panther coach Mike Hann hyped up the crowd at the pep rally and shared how about only four percent of teams in the state each year make it as far as Centralia has this season.

“We were excited to get another week of basketball,” Anderson said. “We got two more games. We had a chance to end our season on a win (Saturday), which only two teams get to do per class. That’s pretty cool.”

“It was the first Final Four in school history and we’ve never been there and the coaching staff has never been there, but at the end of the day it didn’t matter,” Brinkmann said. “From the beginning, we weren’t going to let that rattle us.”