Hugs and tearful goodbyes filled the East No. 3 seed Raptors’ locker room after their season-ending 59-52 loss to West No. 4 Missoula Sentinel in a loser-out game at the Class AA girls tournament on Friday. Junior Karsen Breeding led Gallatin with 16 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Jada Davis added 11 points and sophomore Emma Hardman scored eight. Jenkins and freshman Avé Odegard each scored seven.

Holmquist chalked up both state tournament losses for Gallatin (17-7) — including Thursday’s 64-52 defeat to Missoula Hellgate — to not getting “the lid off the basket.” Gallatin shot 27.8% from 3-point range, 51.7% from the free throw line and 28.1% from the field against Sentinel.

“I thought we got really good looks,” he said. “We just couldn’t get one to fall.”

After the game, though, Holmquist reminded his team how valuable the experience of this weekend will mean moving forward and can be used as “fuel on the fire.”

“We know what the atmosphere is like,” Holmquist said. “And you’ve got to be able to, even if we can’t score buckets and we aren’t hitting shots, we’ve got to find ways to still give ourselves a chance to win. Tonight we didn’t.”

Jenkins and the Spartans’ CC Size traded 3s to open the game. That back-and-forth trend continued throughout the half, as an and-1 from Sentinel’s Monroe Mastro made it 16-15 Gallatin at the end of the first quarter.

A missed 3 from Breeding followed by a layup in transition from Mastro gave Sentinel the lead. Olivia Huntsinger and Mastro added 3s to build it to 23-16. The Raptors answered with a layup and two free throws from Breeding. Davis later hit a corner 3 to cut it to 25-23. The teams later went into halftime tied 28-28.

Gallatin continued to battle, with Hardman hitting a 3 and Breeding hitting a pair of free throws. Later in the quarter, a pair of Davis layups gave the Raptors a 37-33 lead. But a late run by Sentinel at the free throw line gave the Spartans a 41-37 lead entering the fourth.

That run eventually extended the lead to 52-44 after a 3 from Size. Breeding continued getting to the line, but the outside shots just wouldn’t fall for the Raptors to end the game.

Effort was never an issue down the stretch, Holmquist said, but it was difficult to see Sentinel control the offensive glass. That included multiple Sentinel rebounds off missed free throws.

“There were just a couple of those back breakers for us,” Holmquist said.

As Gallatin regrouped after the game, Holmquist had his team reflect on the growth of the past two seasons. That includes going from two combined wins in the Raptors’ first two seasons to 17 in year three. Gallatin earned the No. 3 seed at both the Eastern AA Divisional and Class AA tournaments.

It wasn’t always perfect, Holmquist said, but it provided a foundation to build on heading into next season.

“That’s what I’m really excited about,” Holmquist said. “And I know these kids are going to be motivated and we’re going to get better. Like I (told them), if we can improve as much this year to next year as we did the previous year, people are going to have a hard time playing against us.”