Bethlehem Catholic’s 40-38 loss to Bonner-Prendergast in the second round of PIAA State Class 4A girls’ basketball playoffs was arguably about as painful as it gets.

With seconds left in a tied game, the Hawks were called for two fouls, and Bonner-Prendergast’s Dakota McCaughan made two free throws, ending Becahi’s season.

“We win together, and we lose together,” said Becahi coach Jose Medina. “We picked a bad game to not shoot the ball well.”

Medina noticed something wasn’t quite right during warm-ups and mentioned it to one of his assistants. Now, he wondered if Bonner-Prendergast’s coach noticed too.

“Our girls were missing everything in warm-ups,” Medina said. “Our guards were one for eight, and [Bonner-Prendergast] packed everything in, so we had to shoot from the outside.”

Still, the Hawks led at the end of each quarter, and by as many as six points at halftime, but being held to four points in the fourth quarter while Bonner-Prendergast scored nine brought the game to a tie before the unthinkable happened.

“It was kind of nip and tuck, back and forth. We went up by eight in the third quarter,” said Medina. “One of their girls had a three, and that was her first shot of the game. She only took two shots in the game, and she had a three in the fourth.”

Those shots closed the gap the Hawks had worked to widen.

Taliyah Medina had 21 points for the Hawks, and Hope Brown had nine.

Bonner-Prendergast went on to win its quarterfinal game against Gwynned-Mercy and will face Lancaster Catholic in the semifinal before the 4A final, which is scheduled for March 24.