RONDA - The bad-luck, heart-breaking losses continued for the Lady Falcons in the opening round of the Mountain Valley Conference Monday night.

Behind a five-game winning streak down the stretch, Forbush climbed the standings and moved to the No. 6 seed in the tourney, but faced a tough East Wilkes club, the third seed, in the first round.

The Cards exploded out of the gates, building a 21-8 advantage after the first quarter.

The lead swelled out to 16 at 36-20 at the intermission and grew to 17 at 47-30 heading to the fourth as East looked poised to blow the game wide open.

But Forbush finally woke up in the final quarter, cutting into the lead throughout the frame.

After trimming the lead to 10 at 60-50 with 2:15 left to play, Lindsey York and Lindsey Williams powered the Falcons to within two at 63-61.

Adrain Pardue responded for the Cards, connecting on a fast break to extend the lead to 65-61, but Forbush answered.

York was fouled and sent to the line with 0.4 left on the clock. After sinking the first one free throw (65-62 EW), she purposely missed the second for the hopes of a quick three.

The ball was tapped out into the waiting arms of senior Madison Gentry. She quickly pulled the trigger and the ball swished through the net - sending the game to overtime - but no so fast.

After further review, Gentry’s shot was determined to be too late as the buzzer sounded before she got the shot off, sending East to the second round while Forbush went home after another heart-breaking loss.

“We had a huge 4th quarter,” head coach Bradley Shore said. “We just needed about 0.5 more seconds. We waited too late, but a lot of that is because East Wilkes started so fast. They came out on fire, making three three-pointers right off the bat. We were playing catch up from the very beginning.”

The Falcons scored 32 points in the final frame - two more than they had in the first three quarters combined - but it wasn’t enough in the end, falling 65-62.

Savannah Hill established herself in the paint, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 boards for a double-double, while York and Williams finished with 16 and 10 points, respectively.

York added eight rebounds, four steals and a block, with Williams adding five assists on the night.

The Falcons - the third-ranked 2A team in the MVAC - will now wait to hear if they were awarded a playoff berth in the upcoming 2A State Playoffs, which will be announced Saturday.

If Forbush receives a postseason spot, Shore believes his team can make a run.

“We’re hoping we can surprise somebody,” he said. “We’re hoping somebody will look at our record and say, ‘Oh they’ve only got 10 wins and they are the third seed.’ If they don’t know us maybe they will overlook us.”

On the boys side, the seventh-seeded Falcons will travel to No. 2 Wilkes Central in a rematch of the season-finale in the opening round.

The game is slated for Tuesday night at 6 p.m.