Courtney Strait has had such a stellar high school career that it’s a shame it ended the way it did.

As the final horn sounded Saturday night in the Xavier gym, the steady sharpshooting Kennedy senior looped one last shot from half-court. It clanged off the back of the rim.

Not that it would have mattered, since the Class 4A fifth-ranked Saints simply ran over the 12th-ranked Cougars, 59-32, in a regional semifinal girls basketball game.

Xavier (17-5) now faces Prairie (12-9) Tuesday at Linn-Mar for the Region 3 title.

Strait’s desperation heave was her 11th miss of the night to go with just three baskets and two free throws.  The state’s leading scorer at 21.2 points a game, she was held to just nine by a pair of stifling Saint defenders and uncharacteristically poor marksmanship.

Her shooting didn’t cost Kennedy (13-10) the game, however.

On this night, anyway, Xavier was simply too big and too quick and, in the end, much too energetic.

“When you have a week off like we did,” said Saints Coach Tim Lilly, “you sometimes wonder if it’s going to hurt you.

“But I think the lay-off worked to our advantage because we came and played with very good defensive intensity.”

With little guards Kayla Armstrong and Katlyn Andersen alternately draping themselves  all over Strait in the middle, she had trouble touching the ball. She took only three shots in the first half and made one of them.  When she began firing up deep ones in the fourth quarter in an attempt to catch up, they weren’t falling, either.

“Our philosophy was to go small and put bodies on Courtney and hope the others didn’t shoot the lights out on us,” Lilly said.  “Fortunately, they didn’t hit their triples.”

Meanwhile, the Saints kept rotating one big girl after another under the basket and they all crashed the boards.  Six-foot-2 senior Alex Bartz collected 16 rebounds, to go with a team-high 15 points, and even spunky 5-foot-6 Annie Dale pulled down five rebounds on the defensive end.

All told, the Saints owned the glass, 46-25.

“We rebounded really well,” said Lilly. “We didn’t give them a lot of second-shot opportunities.

“And we pushed the ball up the floor at every opportunity.”

Relying mostly on close-in shots by their tall trees up front, Xavier raced off to 15-7 lead after a quarter and 26-12 at the half.

The Cougars showed some spark coming out in the third period.  But when Xavier reeled off a 11-0 run to start the final stanza, it was all over but the shouting.

“Obviously, we didn’t have our best shooting night,” said Kennedy Coach Dennis Roloff of his team’s 25 percent performance.  “A lot of shots we normally make were rimming out.

“And those four big girls killed us inside. Their fast breaks hurt us, too.”

Strait, one of two seniors (with Kaylese Johnson) in a starting lineup that features two sophomores and a freshman, said her final game as a Cougar was bittersweet.

“I hope the season is not based on just this one game," she said. "Because I’m extremely proud of all of the girls on this team.”

KENNEDY (32):Madison Meier 3 0-0 8, Courtney Strait 3 2-5 9, Kaylese Johnson 0 2-2 2, Paige Hendrickson 1 0-0 2, Stephanie Botkin 1 0-0 2, Mariah Simmons 0 1-2 1, Aryn Nelson 0 0-0 0, Jordan Holmes 2 1-4 6, Capria Davis 1 0-0 2, Taylor Wagner 0 0-2 0, Sarah Zinser 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 6-15 32.

XAVIER (59): Kayla Armstrong 1 8-10 10, Annie Dale 0 0-1 0, Katlyn Andersen 4 5-6 14, Emily Walvoord 5 1-1 11, Alex Bartz 6 3-7 15, Nicole Noonan 0 0-0 0, Katelyn Winker 0 0-0 0, Sarah Dickes 1 2-2 5, Lisa Boomgarden 0 2-2 2, Ashley Stulken 0 0-0 0, Maddie Bertsch 0 0-0 0, Hayley Deutmeyer 0 2-2 2. Totals 17 23-31 59.

Halftime – Xavier 26, Kennedy 12. 3-point goals – Kennedy 4 (Meier 2, Strait, Holmes), Xavier 2 (Andersen, Dickes). Total fouls – Kennedy 23, Xavier 16. Fouled out – none.