HOWELL >> There will still be offseason alterations made to that dusty old girls basketball banner in the South Lyon High School gym, reminders of the trophies already added to the girls hoops section of the showcase, things that hadn’t happened in decades.

There just won’t be any additional ones added to the list now, after Monday night.

The Lions’ banner season ran out of steam in Monday’s Division 1 regional, as they fell to Hartland, 44-39, putting a cap on one of the program’s most successful seasons in a generation.

“That’s basically exactly what we said. You know, it hurts right now and it’s tough to remember right now, but, you know, big picture, we’ll look back and we had a fantastic season,” said Lions coach Chris Schroudt, whose team captured its first district title in 17 seasons on Friday, after winning a share of the Lakes Valley Conference title, its first league crown since the early 1990s — “I wanna say 1993,” Schroudt said — way back when the Lions were part of the Kensington Valley Conference, two league affiliations ago.

The Lions finish 20-3, their previous two losses coming against LVC rival Walled Lake Northern, and co-champion Lakeland, the latter rematch coming late enough in the regular season that it never gave the Lions — who kind of figured this season might be coming after 16 and 18 wins the last two seasons — an opportunity to sit back and realize the history they were making.

“I would like to say that it did (dawn on us), but it didn’t, right? Because, you know, we played Lakeland late in the year, so there was really no exhale, because it was going to come down to that game, or whether we split or clinched,” Schroudt said. “And then, you know, the first time we played (district finals opponent) Northville, we escaped, you know, barely with a win. And I they, you know, you watch the film, and you look at the record like they just got better as the year went on. So I wish, I wish there was, like, a moment that I was like, ‘Yes!’ But that moment probably didn’t come until, you know, Friday night, when we closed it out.”

They were more than willing to keep the roll going, and maybe bring home their first regional crown since 1986-87, but those hopes ended against a Hartland team that has won five regional titles since 2014-15, rolling all the way to the finals three seasons ago.

The Eagles (20-5) will take on No. 2-ranked Belleville (24-1) in Wednesday’s regional finals. The Tigers beat Dexter, 79-40, in the first of Monday’s two regional semifinals.

Outsized by the Eagles at most every position, the Lions didn’t get much in the way of second-chance offense, and didn’t shoot well enough to get into much of a rhythm, and as a result, spent much of the night chasing the Eagles on the scoreboard.

Hartland led 10-9 after one quarter, but held the Lions to just a pair of buckets in the second quarter — both layups off steals — expanding the lead to 19-13 at the break. The Eagles took a 29-22 lead into the fourth, pushing the margin all the way up to 10 points before the Lions started chipping away at it.

“I feel like both teams got looks, right? Both teams got shots, and the big difference was, anytime that we helped, anything that we tripped or, you know, got screened, they made us pay. I mean, they knocked it down — in addition to making free throws and things like that,” Schroudt said. “But I thought offensively, we we ran our stuff and got opportunities. Unfortunately, we just didn’t make enough shots. Bottom line, defensive effort was fantastic. Girls worked super hard, as they have all season. I wouldn’t change anything on the defensive end, just didn’t make enough shots tonight.”

Izzy DePestel hit a 3-pointer out of a timeout just more than halfway through the fourth to push the Hartland lead to 10, at 37-27, but the Eagles would make just one other field goal in the fourth, relying on free-throw shooting (11 for 14 in the quarter, 6 for 8 in the final minute) to close it out.

Lucy Stoll’s bucket down low with 1:02 left cut the deficit to five, 39-34, then Rylee Miller scored in the lane, cutting it to 40-36 with 24.0 seconds left, but the Lions wouldn’t score again until Marian Gleason’s 3-pointer with 4.8 seconds left, making it a four-point game again, 43-39.

Miller finished with 13 for the Lions, while Izzy Nooe had 16, despite near constant extra defensive attention.

“She was a really good player. She can get to the basket, she had a good shot, and it was a really hard challenge. Maybe you can slow her down,” said DePestel, who carried much of the load of guarding Nooe, without knowing much about her coming in. “Not until I started watching film. So that was only, like two days ago, so it was kind of a quick turnaround to see how she played.”

Brin Neuer led Hartland with 14 points.