DANVILLE — When the season began, Armsrong-Potomac coach Nick Hipsher had total confidence in his team. He didn’t need to wait until midway through the season to say he felt the Trojans had a legit shot at winning their first regional title in eight years.

And after playing an intense game last week in a loss to Bismarck-Henning, Armstrong-Potomac faced a relentless Schlarman Academy team that took the Trojans into the final seconds before the game was decided. Needless to say, the Trojans had been battle tested. They entered Thursday’s Class 1A Schlarman Regional Championship against top-seeded Urbana University High ready for another fight. And that’s exactly what they got.

Despite going up by three late in the third quarter on a three-point basket by Morgan Zindars, the Illineks came back and defeated the Trojans 49-44 to advance to Monday’s 8:10 p.m. Colfax Ridgeview Sectional semifinal.

“When Morgan hit that three to (take the lead), that really got us going,” Armstrong-Potomac senior Brooke Markwalder said.

Zindars hit three three-pointers in the game including one in the fourth quarter that pulled the Trojans to within 40-38 with four minutes, 22 seconds remaining. Markwalder later hit a shot with 3:47 to go that tied the game at 40-40.

At that point, the Trojans (21-9 overall) appeared to be gaining momentum. The problem was, they didn’t score again for another 2:11. By then, University High (24-4) found five consecutive points from guard Jaki Vipond (nine points, four rebounds). Despite being up by only five, the game was seemingly out of reach for the Trojans.

Illineks guard Jamie Blue was key in the win scoring a game-high 17 points and finishing with 12 rebounds, five assists and four steals.

“I knew we would have to do a good job on their key players,” University High coach Allie Lindemann said. “Brooke is an awesome player. She has handles. You can’t let her get her shot off because she can be pretty damaging. You can’t let (Erika Sieberns) get inside. We did a good job defending her with that help defense. But then they also have some players that can shoot the three and spot up shots.

“Once we got up by five, they got a three and then a two would have tied the game. I wasn’t sure until the buzzer rang, honestly.”

Sieberns scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Markwalder managed nine points, five rebounds and four assists in her final high school game, and Morgan Zindars came off the bench to score 11 points and pull down five rebounds.

With seniors Markwalder, Sarah Reardon (seven points, seven rebounds), and Shayla Boen (three points, three assists) departing, Zindars, Kirsten Newnum, and Sieberns will be expected to continue the success they had this season.

Hipsher simply hopes the returning players soaked up the knowledge and leadership the senior trio is leaving behind.

“It wasn’t always verbal leadership, but we always came to practice ready to play,” Hipsher said. “They really set the tone for our younger kids. That’s what I told the girls down in the locker room. I hope they learned something from the seniors because they’ve got to carry this on, now. They’ve built a foundation over the past two years that hopefully we can continue to carry it on.”