Credit Dimond's defense and up-tempo play for carrying the Lynx to the Class 4A girls state championship Saturday night at Sullivan Arena.
Credit West Valley's heart and guts for making the game thrilling.
The Lynx earned their first state title since 2006 by beating a decimated West Valley team 54-49, a victory that was clinched with two huge defensive plays in the final 45 seconds.
The Wolfpack played most of the game with seven players. They lost point guard Carlee Marques to a broken wrist Friday, and four minutes into Saturday's game they lost another starter, guard Amber Szmyd to a knee injury.
Though Szmyd gamely tried to return in the second half, she lasted all of 65 seconds, a stretch spent hobbling and biting her jersey in pain.
That left West Valley with two players to spare, both of them freshmen who rarely play. Ruthy Hebard, the 6-foot-3 Player of the Year, did her best to carry the Wolfpack -- 21 points, 18 rebounds, a couple of blocks -- but Dimond prevailed with a deep bench and a defense that doesn't know how to quit.
Dimond's Shameah Jones and Dejha Canty came through with two huge defense plays in the waning seconds and Rohyn Huss turned one of them into an uncontested layup that cemented an unlikely championship season for the Lynx.
"It's pretty surreal," Huss said. "I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it.
"... We graduated a lot of good players and not a lot of people expected a lot from us. They underestimated us. We took advantage of people not expecting much from us."
Huss, a 5-foot-11 post, poured in 21 points, sinking four of nine shots from 3-point range to spark the Lynx. Maya Carle added 14 points, Canty had 13 points and six assists and Jones contributed six steals.
Jones' biggest steal came with her team leading 52-49 with less than 50 seconds left in the game. She came from behind to steal the ball from an unsuspecting Hebard right in the front of the West Valley bench.
Although the Lynx failed to capitalize on the turnover -- they got to the foul line, but Carle missed the front end of a bonus and West Valley got the rebound -- their defense wasn't done yet.
Canty tipped an Alexis Shipman pass intended for Hebard inside the paint and got the ball back for the Lynx. They quickly got the ball downcourt to Huss, stationed by herself next to Dimond's basket, for an easy layup with five seconds left.
"The whole game I've been off my game," Canty said, "and that's my 'I'm sorry.' It gave us a really big boost and sealed the game for us.''
That things came down to the final minute was remarkable, given West Valley's situation. Four players played all 32 minutes. Freshman Gillian Winkelman, who averaged about five minutes a game before Saturday, played for 25 minutes. Despite the limited personnel, the Wolfpack made Dimond earn its championship.
"It hurts," West Valley coach Jessie Craig said. "It's one thing if you can go back (after a game) and say, 'You didn't show up to play, you didn't rebound, you didn't shoot well.
"They gave everything."
Hebard was by no means a one-woman show for the Wolfpack, which got 14 points and four rebounds from Shipman, whose playing time increased once Marques was injured, and eight rebounds from Winkleman.
West Valley outrebounded Dimond 41-28, but the Lynx defense came up with stops when the game was on the line.
"We make people nervous when they have the ball," Huss said.