Waterbury — The outcome of Monday’s CIAC Class M girls’ basketball quarterfinal had been decided with a few minutes remaining, yet Stonington sophomore Anne Drago was still hustling and got a steal with seconds left.

Drago’s steal led to a layup by junior Sophia Bell, making a 64-54 loss to third-seeded Holy Cross look better in the books.

Stonington’s finish was symbolic of its night, though. It would nearly get leveled by turnovers (27 total) and/or a flurry by the Crusaders, then somehow claw its way back before the score got disastrous.

“They kept working hard all the way to the end,” Bears head coach Paulla Solar said. “Even that last steal that Anne made. I was proud of her hustle.”

No. 22 Stonington finished 10-13, one of the final teams standing from the Eastern Connecticut Conference in what has been a tough tournament for the league.

Bell had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Bears and Zoe Ribeiro, the team’s lone senior, had 13 points, four rebounds and two steals.

“I feel badly for Zoe being a senior,” Solar said. “She was a great captain. … I couldn’t ask for a better leader than Zoe. (She) worked her butt off.”

Sophomore Sophia Fernholz added 11 points for Stonington and junior Tori LoPresto made three 3-pointers for nine points.

Sophomore Cayla Howard scored a game-high 23 points with 11 rebounds and five steals for Holy Cross (23-3), the Naugatuck Valley League champion. It will play the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 2 Canton and No. 10 Coginchaug.

Freshman Mya Zaccagnini added 21 points for the Crusaders.

Turnovers ruined the Bears’ chances to win as they struggled when Holy Cross went to a full-court press. They turned it over 10 times in the first quarter and 26 times after three quarters.

“I think we had tournament jitters a little bit and we turned the ball over than we should’ve,” Solar said. “They capitalized on our turnovers,  and that's definitely is the sign of a good team.”

Ribeiro said, “Our turnovers are what led us into the hole.”

Every time it looked like Holy Cross might pull away, Stonington fought its way off the ropes.

The Crusaders led, 26-12, with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the half.

Ribeiro had back-to-back baskets to start an 11-4 run.

Fernholz missed a 3-pointer, grabbed the rebound, and hit a jumper to cut the Bears’ deficit to 30-23 with 27 seconds left in the second quarter. The score stayed that way at halftime.

Howard scored eight straight points, two off of her steals, to give Holy Cross its largest lead, 45-26, with 4:32 left in the third quarter.

LoPresto started and ended an 11-4 Stonington run with a 3-pointer. The last cut the Bears’ deficit to 54-43 with 6:40 left in the game.

“I thought that we really (kept) pushing through,” Ribeiro said. “We kept attacking. We kept feeding it to the posts, which were a great offensive threat tonight.”

Solar said, “I’m really proud of the kids. I think the fact that we had a rough, tough (regular-season) scheduled really helped us to get here.”

n.griffen@theday.com