ROYAL CITY - The Royal High School girls concluded a tough basketball season last weekend with losses to Warden, 54-38, and Kiona-Benton, 67-40.

But in the first half of the game with the stellar Ki-Be squad, the Knights played like league leaders. They were ahead 27-26 at halftime.

"We played a really solid first half," coach Phil Daubel said. "We were unable to sustain it into the second half. We turned the ball over too many times to beat a good team like Ki-Be and shot too poorly from the line."

But, Daubel added: "I am very proud of what these girls accomplished this year. The seniors are going to be greatly missed. I have been blessed to coach such a great group of girls."

Behind the scoring of Flor Araujo and Kayla Smith, the Knights stayed with the Bears through a 14-16 first quarter. Then they won the second quarter 13-10.

The Bears pulled away in the second half and finished the game with a 25-6 fourth quarter.

Araujo led that scoring with 12 points. She added five rebounds. Kayla Smith scored 11 points and added eight rebounds.

Jacky Guadarrama scored nine points and Dory Floren had 10 rebounds, and Brittany Hebdon and Becca Lee had seven rebounds each.

On Friday, Warden jumped out in front immediately, winning the first quarter 14-4. An 18-8 third quarter did the Royal girls in.

The highlight for Royal was the play of Araujo. She scored 18 points and grabbed four steals. Hebdon and Smith had eight rebounds each, and Lee had seven.