It’s safe to assume the Cretin-Derham Hall girls basketball team will be back on this stage at some point down the road.

A group of underclassmen for the Raiders gained valuable experience this week at the Class 3A state girls basketball tournament.

After upsetting undefeated Monticello in the quarterfinals, however, Cretin-Derham Hall bowed out with a 57-48 loss to Marshall in the semifinals on Thursday afternoon at Williams Arena.

Not that the Raiders have any reason to hang their head about after the playoff run they put together.

“We battled and battled all the way through,” Cretin-Derham Hall head coach Tara Gunderson said. “Just really proud of our kids.”

As much as the loss stings for the Class of 2025 in the present, senior Emma Dornan looked back on this season proud of the foundation the group has helped lay for the future of the program.

“It gives exposure for these younger girls to know what it’s like,” Dornan said. “That’s really important.”

There was no sign of nerves from the Raiders in the first half despite a number of underclassmen playing key roles.

The solid play of eighth grader Madeleine Hamiel, in particular, provided as spark as she proved to be a force both getting buckets and grabbing rebounds. That effort helped keep the game close with the score tied 26-26 at halftime.

It looked like Marshall might pull away midway through the second half after an offensive outburst made it 36-29 in its favor. Instead, Cretin-Derham showed the grit that has come to define them this season, rattling off an 11-2 run to retake the lead.

“We wanted that to be what we were known for,” senior Tank Edwards said. “We wanted to be a team where our opponents knew they were going to have to fight all the way until the end of the game no matter what happened.”

That played out in the biggest game to date as the score remained close until Marshall finally took control in the closing minutes thanks to a couple of clutch buckets from junior Taleigha Bigler. She finished with 30 points in the game to go over 1,000 points for her career.

“That was a good deal for her,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said. “I’m always happy when kids get those milestones.”

The next step for Marshall is getting some rest before a matchup with Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the finals on Saturday afternoon at Williams Arena.

As for the Raiders, they walked off the floor proud of everything they have accomplished this season, even if the final score wasn’t what they wanted it to be.

“We wanted to leave our hearts on that court and I think we did,” Dornan said. “I feel like we’ve left every game knowing that we played our hardest and did our best no matter what the outcome was for us.”