The culmination of the entire high school girls basketball season begun Thursday afternoon on the Minot State Dome hardwood, as the last eight teams standing after their respective regional tournaments embarked on the final three-day journey to immortality: the North Dakota state tournament.

The Glenburn Panthers, fresh off their thrilling 47-45 victory over the Rugby Panthers to claim the Region 6 title, tipped off the festivities against the Grafton Spoilers in the first of four Thursday quarterfinal games. Grafton, led by Carlee Sieben’s 21.2 points per game, entered the contest coming off its 13-point win over Thompson High School in the Region 2 tournament and having won 12 straight overall.

The Panthers were not short on offensive talent to match Sieben and the Spoilers. McKenna Rolland, Lorelei McIver and Nadia Post all entered the quarterfinal match averaging double digits at 16.4, 12.5 and 12.4 points per game, respectively.

Perhaps a combination of gritty defensive play and a bit of nervous energy on both sides contributed to a scoreless first three minutes and 25 seconds. Sieben finally cracked the scoreboard first at the four minute and 35 second mark with a two-point shot. Reagan Hanson added two more before the Panthers finally found their offense.

McIver caught a quick pass and immediately pulled up from behind the arc to get Glenburn on the board with just over three and a half minutes left, a shot that was met with boisterous applause from the Panthers faithful. Rolland followed the triple with a layup of her own, and Sieben added two more to give Grafton a slim 6-5 lead in the final two minutes of the first quarter.

Following a timeout at the one minute and 24 second mark, Anna Carignan and Julia Dusek piled on five more to give the Spoilers an 11-5 lead entering the second quarter.

Glenburn was able to muster only eight more points in the second eight minutes of play, led by four more McIver points on another three and one-of-two shooting at the line. Dusek led the Spoilers to halftime with eight more points on a 16-8 run collective run for Grafton. Glenburn entered the locker room searching for answers for the Spoilers’ stifling defense.

Those answers appeared for a moment in the second half, as the Panthers emerged red-hot on the offensive side of the court. Rolland made two straight threes and McIver scored two more to punctuate a quick 8-0 run.

Hanson and Walker Demers halted the Panthers’ newfound offense for a moment with four combined points, but McIver continued Glenburn’s rally attempt with two makes at the charity stripe to get her team back into the affairs, trailing only 31-23 with five minutes and 10 seconds left in the quarter.

Everything started to fall apart from that point on for Glenburn. The Spoilers rattled off a 20-1 stretch, and the Panthers entered the final quarter facing an even larger deficit than they saw at the halftime buzzer at 51-24.

Grafton never let up, and outscored Glenburn 14-9 through the final eight minutes of play. McIver led the Panthers in scoring with 13 on the day, and Rolland also added 10 to join her teammate in double digits. Dusek had it all working for Grafton, finishing with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and three makes from beyond the arc.

Despite the loss, the book is not yet closed on Glenburn’s season, as the Panthers will again take the court Friday at 12 p.m. in the consolation semifinals against the Kenmare Honkers who lost later in the afternoon to the Wilton-Wing Miners. Grafton advances to the tournament semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Friday night to square off against Wilton-Wing.