It wasn’t the regional title that the Powell High School girls basketball team had hoped for, but it was close.

The Lady Panthers were edged 45-41 on Saturday night by Lovell High School to finish second at the Class 3A Regional Tournament. That sends PHS to this week’s 3A state tournament as the west’s No. 2 seed.

“We’re disappointed, but we’re fine. We played hard and hats off to Lovell,” said PHS head coach Scott McKenzie, adding, “It doesn’t phase us. It doesn’t knock us back at all. We’re still confident. We played a great tournament.”

To get to the championship game in Lander, the Lady Panthers pounded Jackson 62-25 on Thursday and overcame third-place finisher Star Valley on Friday, 42-35.

The Powell girls (19-4 overall) open their state tourney at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in Casper against Worland High School (17-7), the No. 3 seed from the east.

Lovell 45, Powell 41

Lovell (19-4) evened their season record against Powell at 2-2 with Saturday’s win.

Befitting that now-deadlocked record, the two teams were never more than seven points apart.

It was 10-9 Lovell at the end of the first quarter and the Lady Bulldogs pushed their lead to 20-15 at halftime.

Lovell still had Powell at five-points-length, 27-22, a little more than halfway through the third quarter. However, a 3-pointer from junior Brianna Donarski and two free throws and a buzzer-beating put-back from junior Danna Hanks had PHS up 29-27 going into the fourth quarter. It was Powell’s first lead since the opening quarter.

But Lovell soon regained the lead and never gave it back. The Lady Bulldogs made 10 of 12 free throws in the final period — too much for the Lady Panthers (who went 3 for 7 from the line in the quarter) to overcome.

“We thought we had fouled the right girls ... and they were 10 for (12) in the fourth quarter,” said McKenzie.

Powell fought until the very end, though.

A 3-pointer from sophomore Kalina Smith brought Powell to within 42-40 with 38 seconds remaining, but the Lady Panthers came up empty on a couple late opportunities to close the gap.

“It was a good championship game: our girls played hard, Lovell played hard,” said McKenzie. He told the Lady Panthers squad before the game that, “This is possibly round four of a five-round boxing match.”

The two teams could meet again at state, theoretically, in the championship game.

Senior Jenni Ebersberger led PHS with 13 points, followed by nine for Donarski, seven for Hanks and Smith, three for senior Megan Wagner and two for sophomore Dani Asay. Wagner led with six rebounds, while Smith had five blocks.

The Lady Panthers shot 13 of 40 (33 percent) from the floor and 12 of 17 (71 percent) from the free throw line.

Powell 42, Star Valley 35

Both the Lady Panthers and Lady Braves (18-5) are known for their tough defense — and they reaffirmed that Friday with a first half that ended with Powell up 14-13.

McKenzie encouraged his team to stop being so conservative on offense and to trust its defense in the second half.

The Powell girls made their big move with the teams tied at 21-21 all with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter.

Donarski started it with a tough lay-up. On PHS’ next possession, Smith canned a 3-pointer, then stole Star Valley’s inbounds pass, got to the line and made one of two free throws. Donarski then came up with another steal and junior Richelle Phister completed the nine-point run by swishing a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“We didn’t press until then,” said McKenzie. “We kind of saved that for when we needed a spurt, and boy, the press couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Leading 30-21, the Lady Panthers made the lead hold up in the final period, in part by shooting 7 of 9 from the free throw line.

Hanks led the team with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor — including getting a steal and lay-up with a bloody nose — and 5-of-7 shooting from the free throw line.

Smith had nine points, nine rebounds and five blocks and “just played really great for us inside,” McKenzie said.

Donarski added eight points, while Ebersberger had four and Wagner and Phister three apiece.

Powell shot 13 of 28 (46 percent) from the floor and 12 of 18 (67 percent) from the free throw line.

Powell 62, Jackson 25

The Powell girls raced out to a 13-0 lead over Jackson (1-21) on Thursday evening and it never got more competitive than that. Powell led 36-6 at the half.

“Just a good first-round game,” said McKenzie. “Everybody contributed.”

That included sophomore Jennifer Bonander, who scored 12 straight PHS points (on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor) in the fourth quarter.

“The girls did a good job of just geting her (Bonander) the ball, and she was in the zone there,” McKenzie said. “A little taste maybe of the future there for us.”

Donarski matched Bonander’s 12 points, while adding six assists. Smith cracked double-figures with 10 points, followed closely by nine apiece from Ebersberger and Hanks. Asay and fellow sophomore Tayli Stenerson each had three points while Wagner and Phister each had two.

Wagner grabbed eight steals, five rebounds and had “just a great defensive effort for us,” McKenzie said. Smith had five steals and four blocks. Hanks led with six rebounds.

Powell shot 25 of 51 (49 percent) from the floor and 8 of 16 (50 percent) from the free throw line.

Full results for the Class 3A West and East tournaments — and brackets for the 3A state tournament — are available at www.whsaa.org.