MURFREESBORO -- It was the type of loss that just tears your heart out, but the North Greene Lady Huskies, many of them with eyes reddened by the tears that had flowed minutes earlier, left Murphy Center with their heads held high Wednesday afternoon.

The Huskies had just been eliminated in what was only the school's second trip to the state tournament in school history. Middleton's Lady Tigers, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class A for much of the season, hit a basket at the buzzer to culminate a furious fourth quarter rally and win 48-46.

"It took us two quarters to believe that we could play with this team," said Coach James Buchanan after the game, noting that his Huskies were behind by seven points at halftime but turned that into a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter. "We tried to explain at halftime that we were just as good as they were, and we needed to play our game and make some shots. We did.

"These two (pointing to senior Dakota White and junior Mariah Britton, who joined him in the media room after the game) made some plays. We got a big three from Shyer (Miller), another from Vaughan (Haley) and one from Taylor (Megan). We got the lead but then couldn't sustain it."

A 3-point goal by Britton to start the fourth quarter lifted the Huskies to a 40-31 lead, and it seemed the Greene Countians had their West Tennessee foes on the ropes. But the Huskies proceeded to make eight turnovers in the final quarter and miss five free throws and the Tigers came storming back. It didn't help that White had to go to the bench with her fourth personal foul with still seven minutes to play.

North Greene managed only two points, free throws by Miller, over the next six minutes, and Middleton pulled even at 42-42 on a bucket by Sharon Morgan with 1:30 left.

The Huskies finally got free from the heavy Middleton press and found a wide-open Vaughan under the bucket for a layup with 1:12 left and a 44-42 NG lead. Miller, with good defensive pressure, forced Morgan into a five-second call. North Greene got the clock down to 31 seconds and Britton hit one of two free throws to put NG up 45-42.

Middleton crashed the boards and got a rebound putback by Kristina Elliott to close to 45-44 with 14 seconds left. North Greene inbounded and White was fouled, making one of two free throws. The Tigers raced up the floor and Morgan dribbled into the lane for a layup to tie the score at 46-46 with just three seconds to go.

North Greene tried to make something happen on the inbounds, but Sierra Morgan intercepted the pass with two seconds left, took a couple of dribbles and fired as the horn sounded. The ball settled into the net and the Tigers had won. It was Morgan's only points of the game.

"We couldn't finish," Buchanan said. "I think we got to hoping that they would miss, or a rebound would come right to us, rather than us going out there and making them miss or going and get the rebound."

Despite being outsized, the Huskies took it to the Tigers on the boards, out-rebounding them 36-31 in the game.

"I think we deserved to win, but it didn't work out," said White, who grabbed 12 boards in the game. "We're a family at North Greene. We set our mind in pre-game that we were going to rebound with them ... play with them. We were right there."

The Huskies play man-to-man defense, and they didn't back away from that plan against the larger Tigers.

"I had heard that most people play them zone," Buchanan said. "But we've got better ball handlers in the county than they've got. Most teams played zone on them because that couldn't rebound with them. They get a lot of second and third shots."

Middleton Coach James Burkley was impressed with North Greene's defense.

"We were a little surprised they played us man," he said. "What they do such a good job of is boxing out the interior and get on the boards. They're a really good team. They brought a lot of energy after halftime and we were desperate there for awhile until we managed to turn it around."

Buchanan blamed himself for his team's misfortune in the final two seconds.

"I put all the blame on myself on that last play," he said. "We had tried to set up something to get off a last shot, but we didn't have a time out left. I should have told them at the timeout that if it wasn't there, don't force it, just go on to overtime. But that one play certainly didn't beat us. We should have closed the game out. We had'em and should've beat'em."

Britton led the Huskies in scoring with 14 points. White had 12 points to go along with her 12 rebounds.

"We came down here for the first time and got our feet wet," Britton, a junior, said. "You could just tell this team (Middleton) had been here before. I think if we work hard we can get back down here."

North Greene finishes the year at 20-14. Middleton is 30-2.