MCMINNVILLE — There is a team at the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament that has been an absolute buzzsaw.

It’s the top-seeded Crater Comets.

Without a loss against an Oregon team this season, Crater came to Linfield University and has carved up the best Class 5A teams the state has to offer. In Friday afternoon’s semifinal game, No. 4 Redmond became the most recent team on the Comets’ march to a state title.

The Panthers saw their title hopes fade away with a 72-44 loss to Crater. Redmond will play No. 2 Silverton on Saturday afternoon in the third-place game, hoping to improve from last year’s fifth-place finish.

“Credit goes to Crater,” said Redmond coach Alex Carlson. “You have to take care of every single advantage when you play a team like that. We had a couple times where we had a few turnovers and it got away from us. It is one of those things when you play for an upset you need things to break your way. And it didn’t.”

Friday was the second time the Comets and the Panthers squared off this season. They met in Prineville at the Central Region Tip-Off Classic on Dec. 6. It was Redmond’s second game of the season. Junior Mylaena Norton remembers the team feeling slightly timid going into that first matchup, a 61-43 loss.

She and the Panthers knew they could not have the same mindset going into the second matchup with a spot in the state title game on the line.

“We had a meeting last night and said we need to have a different mentality,” said Norton, who finished with 13 points. “That is one of the things I am most proud of is that we had that at the start. I know the score doesn’t show it, but I feel like we showed a lot of strength coming out.”

From the opening tip-off, literally, the Panthers showed they weren’t going to back down. Senior Azlynn Ure stole the ball, raced down the court and scored 10 seconds into the game.

When trying to pull off an upset, certain things need to fall into place. And the Panthers got one when Crater’s talented guard Sage Winslow picked up her second foul two minutes into the game and went to the bench.

Then Redmond began to catch fire from behind the 3-point line. Freshman Bergen Porter banked home a shot from deep, then Norton made two 3s. Her 3-pointer at the four-minute mark of the first quarter gave the Panthers a 13-12 lead.

“Everyone talks about playing in those big-time environments and you can’t understand what it is like until you experience it,” Norton said. “I feel like I 100% experienced that today and it was awesome.”

But small miscues — like missing free throws — began to add up and the Comets pounced. Seemingly in a blink of an eye, Crater led 30-15 at the end of the first quarter.

That became the theme of the rest of the game: As soon as Redmond looked as though it would chip away at the lead, the Comets would go on a massive run.

Crater’s Taylor Young has perhaps been the tournament’s most impressive player. The junior finished with 34 points, six assists and eight steals. Lydia Traore finished with a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, while also blocking five shots.

“We have a lot of respect for them,” Norton said. “Unfortunately they beat us and they were the better team than us today.”

Norton led the team with 13 points, and four different players finished with at least five points for the Panthers. Porter finished with seven points, and sophomore Bella Schmidt added six points. Senior Aspen Morris and sophomore Freya Snow each had five points.

Now the challenge for Redmond is to pick itself up after a crushing defeat. It is a similar situation to a year ago, when the Panthers also lost in the semifinals. They ended that tournament with a loss, and they hope to respond better this time around.

“(Losing in the semifinals) is not something you want to get good at,” Carlson said. “But we know that this is nothing to dwell on. And competing for third-place in state is something that we should be proud that we get to do. I know our team will do that. We have to move forward if we want to be successful. But I know my girls will show up and play tomorrow.”