HANCEVILLE — Cold Springs’ bid for a third straight Final Four ended Monday at Wallace State.

The No. 2 Eagles fought valiantly but ultimately came up short versus top-ranked Decatur Heritage, falling 61-41 in the Class 2A title game at the Northwest Regional Tournament.

The loss ends Cold Springs season at 19-9.

“We knew we had to play one of our best games of the year,” Eagles coach Tammy West said. “We had a lot of good looks, but our shots didn’t fall. We were 4 for 24 (on 3-pointers) and I want to say most of them were uncontested. We did some nice things offensively … but defensively, there are so many weapons you have to worry about that made it really, really hard for us to slow them down.”

Decatur Heritage threatened to pull away in the first half, building a 24-10 lead early in the second quarter.

Cold Springs, however, showed its grit and put together a 12-2 spurt over the final six minutes of the frame to draw to within four points at intermission.

But Decatur Heritage — behind a swarming defense — seized control from there, holding the Blue and Gold scoreless for more than seven minutes of the third stanza before a Macie Huffstutler 3-pointer ended a run of 13 straight points.

The Eagles got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Ella Dickerson scored a team-high 20 points. Macie Huffstutler added nine.

Dickerson and Kenady Graves each made the All-Tournament for Cold Springs, which could return to the regional stage next season.

West’s team loses only two seniors — Graves and Avery Gerstman — and should be in the mix for a playoff run if things go according to script.

The first step of that plan? Getting back to work.

“We’re going to use this as motivation,” Dickerson said. “We’re not the kind of people who take losing easily, so we’re going to be in the gym every day until basketball season starts — getting up shots, working out and growing closer as a team. Hopefully, we’ll come out on top next year instead of like this.”