Old Lyme — The girls' basketball players of Old Lyme High emerged from their locker room for the final time of the season Tuesday night to a loud ovation from the gym remnants.

Good reason for that: The Wildcats played as well as they could against bigger, stronger, faster Immaculate.

No. 10 Old Lyme even cut No. 15 Immaculate's lead to six in the final minute, giving the large crowd a moment to believe, before succumbing 53-43 in the CIAC Class S tournament quarterfinals.

"Immaculate is good. They have speed, size and shooters," Old Lyme coach Don Bugbee said. "But we played well. Maybe we got a little stale offensively in the third quarter. But the effort we put forth I'll take any day."

Immaculate, whose school website lists that it attracts students from 26 towns and two states, has been a sporting nemesis for Old Lyme. The Mustangs eliminated Old Lyme girls' soccer from nine different Class S tournaments over the years.

This season, Immaculate's schedule allowed it to play nine different schools of Class L or LL designation. Old Lyme played one.

"There's no question that kind of schedule prepares you," Bugbee said. "We're in a different situation. We have mostly Shoreline (Conference, made up of Class S and M schools) games and three nonleague. We scheduled games outside the league according to what we needed."

Old Lyme, which welcomed several new players this season, finished 15-9.

Katie Walsh and Alexis Fenton had 14 points apiece for the Wildcats, while Megan Loflin had 13.

Old Lyme trailed 27-25 at the half and 38-31 after three. The Wildcats rallied within four early in the fourth period but couldn't get closer. Immaculate executed a delay offensively that not only ran time off the clock but resulted in layups through patience.

Colleen Blackman led Immaculate, which plays No. 6 Coventry in the semifinals on Monday, with a game-high 29 points.

"We had an awesome year," Bugbee said. "I just told the kids that. The seniors played a great game tonight and they had a great year. They did everything we asked and we as nice of a group of kids as we've had. That's important to me."

m.dimauro@theday.com