They don’t stop the clock after a made basket in high school basketball in the final minute like they do in college and the NBA. The Washington Warriors wish they did.

On Tuesday, Cedar Falls held on for a 55-54 win on Warrior Senior Night, despite a controversial finish where the Tigers did not attempt an in-bounds pass as time expired.

Abby Herb scored a layup with 7.2 seconds on the clock to pull the Warriors within a single point. Washington Athletics Director Paul James thought there were around five seconds to play when the Tigers got the ball out of bounds.

“I thought the officials had it right,” James said. “It was a close call.”

Coach Frank Howell stood and protested after the horn sounded, pleading for a five-second call.

“It was kind of unfortunate that we didn’t have any timeouts left,” Howell said. “After that, it is a little bit of a discretionary call on the part of the referee to try and determine when they actually take the ball out of bounds.

“They were able to take the ball out of bounds with seven seconds left and basically hold on to it, but that is not really what lost us the game. I think we did not have enough intensity in the third quarter and that is what did us in.”

The loss cost the Warriors an outright Mississippi Division crown in the Mississippi Valley Conference.The best they can do is tie with Dubuque Wahlert, which holds a one-game lead with one game to play.

“It is very possible,” Howell said of letting the title slip away. “There are all kinds of scenarios that could still happen. But certainly it is one that we would have felt a lot better about if we could have won it with one more game left to go (in the regular season).”

Howell and company conclude the regular season at Linn-Mar on Thursday. Wahlert hosts Dubuque Senior that night.

“We’ll still play hard on Thursday and see how things shake out,” Howell said. “It is still something that mathematically could happen, but really you don’t want to get a championship going in through the back door either.”

Washington dropped to 12-7 overall and 10-5 in the league. Cedar Falls climbed to 12-8 and 10-5.

Cedar Falls used a stifling zone defense and intimidated the Warriors inside with six blocked shots from two players who stand 6-foot-3 (Kaz Brown and Madison Wood) and another 6-footer (Krystal Graves). Washington shot just 27 percent from the floor, but hit 10 of 12 free throws.

“We had a hard time shooting over her (Brown) and getting second shots,” Howell said. “She did a good job controlling the paint.”

The Warriors lost their fifth game of the season by four points or less, but stormed back against the Tigers after trailing by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Aleena Hobbs’ deep-corner 3-pointer with 1:22 left cut the margin to 55-49. Cedar Falls missed the front end of a free-throw bonus, then Brooke Foreman landed her fourth 3-pointer to pull the Warriors within 55-52 with 38 seconds left.

The Warriors got a steal and missed three shots inside the paint before fouling the Tigers' Imonee Qualls. She missed the first toss in a 1-and-1 bonus, and the Warriors hustled up court where Herb scored a layup virtually uncontested. The Tigers took the ball out of bounds and held it as time expired.

Foreman (four rebounds and three steals) and Herb (seven rebounds) led the Warriors with 12 points apiece. Kelli Klaus played a solid game with nine points (3-for-5 shooting, 3-for-3 free throws and three boards). Tasha Roundtree had seven steals and four assists.

Four Warrior starters had tough shooting nights with Jazz Royster (0-for-10), Madison Kramer (0-for-6), Danielle Franklin (2-for-8) and Roundtree (2-for-13) going a combined 4-for-37.

The Tigers were led by Emily Neff with 20 points, including three 3-pointers. Cedar Falls hit 44 percent from the field and had just one more field goal than Washington.

Washington led 29-25 at halftime, but got outscored 21-9 in the decisive third quarter. When Jacquelin Conrad drained a 3-pointer just before the third quarter ended, Cedar Falls led 46-38.

“You can play pretty well defensively for three quarters of the game, but if you have one bad defensive quarter then it will do you in,” Howell said. “I think we got out-rebounded in the third quarter 13 to 6. If we could have reversed that we would have been in good shape going into the fourth quarter, but instead we were playing from behind.”

CEDAR FALLS (55): Kaitlyn Hennings 0 0-0 0, Allie Wirth 1 1-4 3, Imonee Qualls 1 2-3 5, Emily Neff 7 3-4 20, Jacquelin Conrad 3 2-2 10, Krystal Graves 1 2-2 4, Kaz Brown 2 0-0 4, Madison Wood 4 1-3 9. Totals 19 11-18 55.

WASHINGTON (54): Abby Herb 5 2-3 12, Brooke Foreman 4 0-0 12, Madison Kramer 0 0-0 0, Jazz Royster 0 3-4 3, Tasha Roundtree 2 2-2 6, Danielle Franklin 2 0-0 6, Aleena Hobbs 2 0-0 6, Kelli Klaus 3 3-3 9. Totals 18 10-12 54.

Halftime - Washington 29, Cedar Falls 25. 3-point goals - Cedar Falls 6 (Neff 3, Conrad 2, Qualls 1), Washington 8 (Foreman 4, Franklin 2, Hobbs 2).