Perhaps that’s why, with 19 seconds left and a one-point deficit, senior Maureen Tremblay calmly delivered a pinpoint backdoor pass to junior Elizabeth Friesen, finding a rare look that breached the Bulldogs interior defense and nearly brought an unlikely state title back to Falls Church. Friesen’s layup attempt nearly fell through, bouncing once on the left side of the rim, then twice more on the right before falling out.

The Bulldogs went back on offense. And with it, the Mustangs suffered a 44-43 loss to the Lynchburg school at VCU’s Siegel Center.

“It’s a bigger stage, bigger crowd, big moment, but at the end of the day, it’s the same game,” Tremblay said.

Up-tempo Woodgrove girls find their rhythm, win first state title

Though the Mustangs have been a consistent power in Class 3 and won a state title in 2021, this journey was different from the teams that reached VCU in 2021 and 2022. Many games were close, a fact that familiarized the team with adversity and its weaknesses.

“It just kind of made them buy in even more … they all played a role at some time,” Meridian Coach Chris Carrico said. “That’s hard to say about a team: that the majority of kids have played some sort of role in a meaningful way in a meaningful game.”

As such, the Mustangs (22-6) tried everything against the Bulldogs (27-0). They went to a matchup zone and a person-to-person defense. They took away screen-and-rolls. They did wind sprints in the week leading up to the game and had four starters play all 32 minutes. They forced the Division I-bound duo to play from the outside. Offensively, the Mustangs were streaky. But they conceded just two points to Liberty Christian in the second quarter, grabbing hold of a 21-16 halftime advantage.

They built on that in the third and took a 10-point edge on the first possession of the fourth.

“They executed the game plan 100 percent,” Carrico said. “I couldn’t have asked anything more from my kids today. … Even I thought we were the underdog. So for an underdog to go out there and scrap that much, that’s being bigger than the moment.”

But Liberty Christian, when it had to, made its push, relying on a senior tandem that wasn’t all that efficient but still combined for 39 points and 28 rebounds, 16 of which were offensive. Tremblay led the Mustangs with 15 points, while Friesen had 11.