Junior Dani Heimsoth (30) powered up a shot between Sacred Heart's Laura McMullin (left) and McKenzie Melick late in the first half to give the Lady Chiefs a brief lead. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

SLATER -- The third time wasn't the charm for the Santa Fe girls' basketball team.

Despite an all-new starting cast, the Lady Chiefs reached the championship game of the 27th Wildcat Classic -- only to lose it for the third year in a row as top-seeded Sacred Heart defended its title Saturday, 53-28.

It all began going sour for Santa Fe when sophomore Rachel Fritz buried a three-pointer with seven seconds to go in the first half to give the Lady Gremlins a two-point lead. After the break, they took over -- holding the Lady Chiefs to only two field goals while dominating, 29-6.

"I knew that was huge," Santa Fe head coach Tina Burton considered Fritz's bomb, which answered a 7-0 run capped by junior Dani Heimsoth's bucket with 12 seconds left to give the Lady Chiefs a lead after being down by as many as eight points. Sacred Heart "had some momentum and had gotten something going."

Heimsoth got loose inside early in the third quarter, but Santa Fe went nearly five minutes before scoring again.

After tallying 10 first-half points, Heimsoth was held in check by 6-foot-1 junior Laura McMullin -- who made a pair of put-backs late in the third period to extend the Lady Grem's cushion to 14 points heading into the final period, which the Sedalia club controlled by a 13-2 margin.

"We got stale offensively," said Burton, who only got points from three players. "It got boring."

The same couldn't be said for the first half, which saw three tie scores and a pair of lead changes in the opening period before an 11-2 surge -- Fritz hitting a pair of jumpers -- put Sacred Heart in front, 17-9.

However, the Lady Chiefs blanked their foe for three minutes as Heimsoth posted up twice on McMullin, who had to be careful while playing with two fouls.

"I was proud of them to stay in there and keeping fighting," Burton said. "We did the defensive things we needed to do."

Having reached the 1,000 career-point plateau Wednesday, McMullin logged 14 points -- while also grabbing 16 rebounds -- to pull to within 100 points of the school scoring record. Fritz added 13 points for the Lady Gremlins (13-4).

Heimsoth had 12 points and eight boards and junior Molly Blomberg and sophomore Lauren Aversman tallied eight each for Santa Fe (6-10), which had won four straight games after starting the season 2-9.

"We're getting to the point where everybody's doing their job," Burton observed. "We're starting to get every player playing the way they're capable of playing."