By John Sherrard, Correspondent

MONTEBELLO – It’s been 11 years since the Cantwell Sacred Heart High School girls basketball team was in the CIF-Southern Section finals.There won’t be a return appearance to the title game this season for the Cardinals as they lost 49-45 to visiting St. Monica in the Division 4A semifinals Saturday night.

But it wasn’t without a valiant effort.

Trailing by 10 points with 3:40 remaining in the game, the Cardinals went on a 7-2 run, highlighted by a long 3-pointer by senior guard Priscilla Rodriguez, to cut it to 43-38 with 1:38 left.

However they traded baskets the rest of the way and fell to Camino Real League opponent St. Monica.

Cantwell (18-10), which last won a CIF-SS championship in 2002, was led by a game-high 19 points from junior guard Sylvia Garcia.

St. Monica (26-6) was led by senior Briana Harris with 15 points.

“We’ve done that (comebacks) all year long,” Cantwell coach Omar Villalta said. “Defensively that is our positive, but what took the air out of us was we couldn’t hit shots down the stretch.

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