GOLDEN – Sand Creek’s 2011-2012 campaign was its best in history.

The undersized Scorpions’ mind-bending journey finally came to an end with a 52-36 loss to top-seeded D’Evelyn on Saturday in the 4A state quarterfinals.

“This year has been a joy,” said first-year coach Jamie Carey, who was on crutches, and was minus injured star Taylor Proctor all season. “They haven’t let being undersized be a problem, and they’ve worked really hard and have done everything we’ve asked of them.”

Sand Creek trailed by as many as 20 in the second half before Bri Pratt’s short jumper cut the lead to 44-36 with 3:30 remaining.

The Jaguars scored the rest from there.

Junior guards Mikayla Reese and J’nae Squires led the way for the Scorpions with nine points apiece.

“We are proud of ourselves for how far we came,” emotional senior Jessi Macedo said. “Nobody thought we could get this far but we showed them wrong.”

The court was 10 feet longer than a regulation high school court, and it proved to have an effect early.

It looked like a baseball game might have broken out at the Colorado School of Mines. Six-and-a-half minutes in, Raven Daniels scored Sand Creek’s first basket. A minute later, the junior hit a 10-footer and the Scorpions trailed 5-4 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter of streaks, D’Evelyn scored the first nine points, Sand Creek countered with the next 11 and then the Jaguars came back with 11 more.

Sand Creek’s Squires hit a 3 from the left of the key, and Reese converted a three-point play to tie the game at 14 with over 4 minutes left in the half. For the rest of the quarter, the Scorpions went cold, while D’Evelyn hit two 3s on its 11-0 run to take the 25-14 lead.

Squires hit a bucket with 1 minute to go cut the deficit to 25-16 which lasted to the break.

In the third, the Jaguars scored the first nine and Laura Tyree’s 3-pointer with 2:52 left gave the team trimmed in green a 40-20 lead.

After Pratt cut the lead to eight, the Jaguars hit six of their seven free throws to clinch a trip to Boulder to face Pueblo South in the semifinals Wednesday.

“We played well tonight,” said D’Evelyn scoring leader Madalyn Neely, who finished with 17. “They are a good program. … Our offense was just better than their defense tonight.”

Carey wouldn’t comment on the 19-10 foul disparity, instead she focused on the three seniors, Macedo, Sierra Davis and Jessie Lingold, who played their last game in Scorpions’ red.

“I was proud of them. They set the bar,” Carey said. “What they’ve accomplished they should take out into the world and represent Sand Creek.”