The Wildcats and head coach Emily Eckwahl undid what was a nine-point deficit early in the third quarter, relying on key contributions from Amaya Lewczyk, Hayden Fisher and Paige Gratto with the game on the line on the way to a 46-40 victory.

The feeling after hoisting a sectional title in the midst of a pandemic?

“Blessed and grateful,” Eckwahl said. “So many things could have gone wrong between a COVID contact or an injury like Panama suffered. A lot can happen in eight weeks and somehow we made it out here eight weeks with no major incidents. We just could not be luckier. We’re just thankful to have had a season and then to top it off like this — I said everything else was icing on the cake, but who wants cake without icing? We were really waiting for that championship.”

With Panama carrying a 28-19 lead early in the third quarter, Eckwahl rallied her troops to undo the Panthers lead as Fisher hit her first two shots of the night, both from beyond the arc, in back-to-back possessions in a crucial swing of momentum.

OBSERVER Photo by Scott Reagle Sherman’s Paige Gratto shoots over Panama’s Mandy Brink during Friday’s Section VI Class D final in Sherman.

“I could not have been prouder of her,” Eckwahl said. “We have been begging her to shoot more and have that confidence in the shot that we have. Even more impressively she had to play post defense for the first time all season when Jenna Fisher went out of our defensive rotation. She stepped up and played Ashlyn Harvey for the entire second half.”

Sherman would earn a three-point lead early in the fourth after some good work in the paint by Mackenzie Gratto and Amaya Lewczyk, laying the groundwork for some key plays by Paige Gratto.

The sophomore would feed Mackenzie Gratto with a nice pass, and hit a floater in close on the ensuing possession to maintain a six-point Sherman lead.

“This isn’t the first time that she has had some big shots in big games. I felt 100 percent confident in her having the ball in her hands to take those shots,” Eckwahl said.

In the end, Sherman was able to secure its victory at the free-throw line, with Lewczyk hitting five three throws in the final period on her way to 10 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Leading a valiant effort in the final minutes for the Panthers was guard Mandy Brink, who was injured on March 6 before returning on Wednesday in semifinal play against Pine Valley.

“She is absolutely one of the top players in Western New York,” Panama coach Dennis Hinsdale said of Brink. “That girl will be playing college ball somewhere and I will be there to support her, because she is a great athlete. What do you say? They played their hearts out, they left everything on the floor. I asked them to play hard at the beginning of the game and they did.”

The sophomore would score 22 of her team’s 40 points, starting off her night with a floater in the lane, a right-side drive and an excellent pass to Josephine Bailey to lift the Panthers offense early.

Brink would finish with three assists and a steal while Bailey notched 16 points and six rebounds.

Mackenzie Gratto would counter those early efforts with a putback and a 3 for Sherman, on her way to a team-high 15 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals and two blocks.

For Panama, ending the year within reaching distance of a Section VI title is its own kind of success.

“We weren’t supposed to be here,” Hinsdale said. “We lost Natalie Angeletti and Kylie Schnars, two of the premier players in Western New York. Most of these girls had never seen the floor. To get to the sectional final, I was elated.”

The Panthers would see grow their lead to 20-12 in the second quarter after a 3 by Brink, a contested lay-in from Bailey, and another long-range make from Brink thanks to an excellent perimeter screen by Lilly Odell.

However, it seemed only a matter of time until the Wildcats started hitting shots as well.

“I knew that they were full of shooters, so I knew it was going to come. I was just hoping that it didn’t come too quick,” Hinsdale said. “We talked about this pregame, we knew there were going to be peaks and valleys and we were just going to have to fight through them, and we got a run on them. We might have got to feeling a little too comfortable maybe, I don’t know.”

Sherman ends the year with a 12-3 record, with one of those losses coming to Panama (9-6) on Feb. 18.

“I don’t think I took a breath until that final buzzer sounded,” Eckwahl said. “They are a great team and when they were at full strength the first time we met them we lost by three. So we were really looking forward to playing them again at full strength.”

PANAMA (40)

Bailey 7 2 16, Brink 8 4 22, Schauman 0 0 0, Harvey 0 0 0, Morgan 1 0 2, Lisciandro 0 0 0, Odell 0 0 0. Totals 16 6 40.

SHERMAN (46)

JFisher 1 0 2, Lindsey 0 2 2, Henning 0 0 0, PGratto 5 0 11, Lewczyk 2 6 10, MGratto 5 4 15, HFisher 2 0 6.

3-point goals–PGratto, MGratto, HFisher 2, Brink 2.

Panama 8 14 8 8–40

Sherman 10 9 12 15–46