CLAWSON >> Royal Oak Shrine came out Monday night hitting all the right notes.

Some of the team sang the national anthem and the Knights jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead on a pair of 3-pointers by Tess Tillman.

But that was the high point for the Knights as the Detroit Pershing Doughgirls rallied to lead 11-10 after the first quarter, then steadily pulled away over the next two, going on to claim a 65-42 victory in a D3 regional semifinal.

Pershing blew the game open with 41 points in the middle two periods, getting to seemingly every ball, piling up steals and rebounds, and getting out on the break.

“We seemed a step slow on defense, and then they broke it open, and it was hard to catch up,” Shrine head coach Katie Tillman said.

The Doughgirls only had six players, but everyone put up numbers in some way or other, and almost everyone took a turn as the hot hand. Kyrieona Carter was the unstoppable force, however, for Pershing, and she finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds, four steals, and two blocks in an all-around performance. Deskenai McDaniels had 12 points and seven rebounds, while Kendall Coopercheeks finished with 15 points and eight rebounds. Jaziah McDaniels added 11 points to give the Doughgirls four players in double figures.

Shrine got a game-high 27 points from Tillman. However, no one else made double-digits for the Knights, who struggled in the half-court offense, and they never really got anyone else consistently going on offense. Summer Smith had eight points to go along with nine boards, but the rest of the team managed only seven points as the offense bogged down too frequently.

The Knights kept fighting and put together a couple of short runs late, even outscoring the Doughgirls in the final period 15-13. Regardless, the deficit was simply too much to overcome once Pershing pushed the margin over 20 points, Shrine never got it back under that number.

Shrine’s season comes to an end with a 13-11 record and a district championship, which marks a major turnaround from last year’s 5-17 campaign.

“We grew in leaps and bounds,” Coach Tillman said. “We definitely improved. A district championship was a huge thing for these girls. Especially for my juniors, my sophomores, my freshmen, to be part of this and to know what it takes to get here so we can do it again. That’s the whole idea to this program, to get us back, that’s the goal.”

The Knights will graduate six players, including four starters, from this year’s team, and return seven players next year.