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ELKHART — The Southern Wells Raiders put it all on the line Saturday afternoon at North Side Gym, but unfortunately they came up short again to the Fort Wayne Canterbury Cavaliers.

A basket by Megan Pedro with 59 seconds left and four free throws by Cassie Kreiger in the remaining seconds lifted the Class A defending state champion Cavaliers to a 44-43 victory in the north semi-state game.

A late three-pointer by Southern Wells senior Haley Killingbeck accounted for the final margin.

“We have been a 32-minute team. We’re relentless and keep playing to the end. We may not be able to get rid of you early, but for 32 minutes were going to be there looking to make plays. It took us 31 minutes and 59 seconds today to finally get rid of them,” said Cavaliers’ coach Scott Kreiger.

“That’s a testament to Southern Wells and their grittiness and what their seniors did in keeping them in the ballgame,” Kreiger added.

It was a game of spurts and the Cavaliers (22-4) used the last spurt to take the lead and hold off the Raiders.

“There definitely were momentum swings and fortunately we ended up on top of the last one,” said Kreiger.

Pedro’s basket came at a crucial point after Southern Wells’ senior Kristy Penrod had cut Canterbury’s lead to 38-37.

Cassie Kreiger led to that play by driving to the basket. Although she missed the layup, she went after the ball and tipped it back to Pedro for the shot.

“That takes it from one to three and keeps the lead in our hands. There are a hundred of those plays in the game, but that one stood out,” said coach Kreiger.

Pedro came off the bench to spark the Cavaliers with 19 points, including 12 on four three-pointers. Junior center Tabitha Gerardot added 14 points and nine rebounds.

The Raiders, finishing with a remarkable 20-5 record, bounced back from a 34-24 deficit in the third period. An 11-2 run from late in the period to the 5:02 mark of the last period made it a 36-35 deficit.

A free throw by Raider senior Meghan Prible sliced Canterbury’s lead to 40-38 with 45 seconds left.

Then Kreiger followed with two free throws with 36 seconds to go. Killingbeck his a big shot to make it 42-40, but Kreiger drilled two more free throws with eight second remaining that were the daggers in the Raiders.

The Raiders opened the game with a 10-2 lead, but the Cavaliers tied it up at 10-10 and went ahead 18-14 at halftime.

Canterbury upped that lead to 20-14 as the second half started, but the never-say-die Raiders rallied to go ahead 22-20. Then, the Cavs used a 14-2 run to lead 34-24 with 2:48 left in the third period.

“We wouldn’t have done anything different other than just make a few plays on the offensive end,” said Raiders’ coach John Fouts, who was proud of his team.

“Defensively, I thought we had a good plan and the kids did a great job of doing exactly what we wanted them to do. They just fought their rear ends off the whole game and did a great job,” added Fouts.

The Cavaliers were 13 of 41 from field-goal range, but 6 of 18 were three-pointers to go along with 12-for-16 shooting at the free-throw line. That proved to be just enough difference on the scoreboard.

“We weren’t as aggressive going to the basket as I would have liked at times,” said Fouts, “but they’re a good defensive team. Yeah, that was the difference in the game.”

Needless to say it was a disappointing loss, since it was the second straight time that the Raiders had lost to Canterbury at the semi-state level — one win away from a trip to the state finals.

Canterbury will now play Vincennes Rivet for the Class A state championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Raiders had a slightly better shooting percentage, making 19 of 56 shots, but they were only 2 of 11 from three-point range and 3 of 7 at the free-throw line.

Southern Wells was led by senior forward Katelyn Prible with 11 points. Killingbeck added nine, while Meghan Prible, Penrod and sophomore Cristin Carter each finished with seven. Senior Stella Grimm added two points.

Meghan Prible also had eight rebounds, Katelyn Prible seven and Killingbeck six.

Fouts couldn’t say enough about his five seniors.

“They had a great career. You can go down the list and everyone helped us win games this year and a year ago, doing different things,” said Fouts. “I’ve been doing this for 11 or 12 years and you’re not going to have a group like this very often that all comes through in the same class. They’ve done a lot of hard work a group. They’ve deserved all the credit that they’ve got. We’re sure going to miss them.”