MOUNT SHASTA — The Ripon Christian girls basketball team’s season ended a long way from home Wednesday in the first round of the CIF State Division V Northern California Regional Championships.

The Knights made the near-300 mile trip and battled valiantly with Northern Section champion Mount Shasta but were done in by two 9-0 runs in a 51-32 loss.

“I told the girls before we left this morning that we have every excuse — long bus ride, unfamiliar gym and we’re not expected to win,” Ripon Christian coach Ed Mulder said. “No excuses tonight. They gave me everything they had.”

Tenth-seeded Ripon Christian trailed by just five points midway through the third quarter before the No. 7 Bears scored nine unanswered points to open up some breathing room. They led 39-28 by the end of the third and held the Knights to just four points in the fourth.

Mount Shasta also went on a 9-0 run in the first quarter and took a 10-6 advantage into the second.

“They basically hit more shots than we did,” Mulder said. “We had good looks, they just didn’t go down. I’m proud of our girls. I thought they played really hard and worked through those bad stretches, but when you’re in NorCals you can’t have stretches like that. If you eliminate those dry spells, who knows?

Bailey Broker paced Ripon Christian with 10 points and eight rebounds. Molly Hoeksema and Nicole Graham added seven and six points, respectively. Emily Andrus and Kacey Cane scored 11 points apiece and did most of their damage in the second half for Mount Shasta, which heads to St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda in the second round Saturday.