They had fought, scratched and clawed their way back into the loser-out game late in the fourth quarter. Trailing the majority of the game, Bellevue had battled back against Seattle Prep in the opening round of the Sea-King 3A District Tournament, tying the game at 29 with only 9.7 seconds left to play on a pair of clutch free throws from senior Carly Cahill that sent the crowd into wild cheers.

It took Kelsey Blais a mere seven seconds to turn Bellevue’s elation into a Seattle Prep celebration.

Prep’s Lindsey Brown took an inbound pass from Brittany McMillan and tossed the ball to Blais, who beat a Bellevue trap and drove down court, all the way to the bucket, and, hoping for a foul, lifted up a shot that could best be described as a prayer.

For what seemed like an eternity to Prep and Bellevue alike, the ball hung on the rim, seemingly undecided on which way to fall.

“That was the longest second of my life,” Blais said.

But the ball fell in the hoop for the game-winning basket with less than two seconds remaining to play that gave Seattle Prep a 31-29 victory, and ended Bellevue’s bid for a third-straight state tournament appearance.

After the shot fell through, Bellevue was unable to get a shot off as the buzzer sounded and Seattle Prep (14-9) stormed the floor, advancing to play Franklin, the tournament’s No.1 seed.

“The gods were with us tonight,” said Prep coach Michelle Hall.

After the first quarter, it seemed Prep’s game to lose, as it took more than 11 minutes for Bellevue to score its first field goal. The Wolverines (14-10) were 0-for-15 from the floor before Natalie Anderson scored her only points of the game. Despite shooting 10 percent in the first half (2-for-20), Bellevue only trailed the Panthers 13-7.

“The way we shoot the ball…there’s no way we should shoot that bad,” said Bellevue coach Ron Tinnin. “We knew we could get back in it and we knew we hadn’t started to play basketball yet.”

The Wolverines cut into the Prep lead and briefly took the lead with three-point baskets from Catelyn Webber and Cahill in the third quarter.

“They’re going to make their runs,” Hall said. “We know their signature is hitting those threes and we knew it would happen at some point during the game.”

The game went back-and-forth in the final quarter but the Panthers were aided by 19 offensive rebounds that resulted in 10 second-chance points, many of those from Prep leading scorer Kari Luttinen, who had 11 points in the win.

“It’s hard to win when you give the other team that many opportunities to shoot the ball,” Tinnin said.

Mercer Island is the only KingCo team remaining in the district tournament, as Mount Si and Liberty were eliminated by Nathan Hale and Rainier Beach on Tuesday night.