It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

Not for the Randolph girls.

Not after the Cardinals won a boys state championship Saturday night.

Section IX Millbrook shot 50% from the field and a blistering 8 of 13 from 3-point range to win its second straight New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C championship 59-45 over Randolph on Sunday afternoon at Hudson Valley Community College.

For the Cardinals, the loss capped an emotional roller-coaster of a weekend that included watching the boys win a semifinal Friday night, themselves win a semifinal Saturday morning and experiencing the boys capture the school’s first basketball state championship Saturday night before Sunday’s disappointing finish.

“There was this feeling all year that this was a special group. The boys always played before us. Sectionals, they played the day before. Regionals, they played the morning before. … They were kind of like leading us. We were following their way,” Randolph head coach David Pihlblad said. “We were thinking this would be fantastic if we could both get it. It’s still fantastic. This season was amazing.”

While the Blazers feature a pair collegiate prospects in senior Emily Grasseler and junior Natalie Fox, it was senior Ella Wilson who carried them offensively on their way to the title Sunday.

Wilson finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, knocking down 5-of-6 3-point attempts, including her first five of the game.

“Their bigs are really tough. That’s why they’ve won back-to-back state championships. Our focus today was to limit their bigs. We did that,” Pihlblad said. “(Wilson) hit a bunch of 3s. We didn’t … expect that. She pretty much won them a state championship today.”

Randolph was led by sophomore Payton Morrison with 18 points while senior Kyra Pence had 9 points. The Cardinals appeared to have a good game plan to attack Millbrook’s size, but 15-of-45 shooting, including just 9 of 29 from 3-point range, was their undoing.

“We were getting open looks for a good chunk of that first half. They were in and out, weren’t falling. We said ‘Just keep shooting.’ We have good shooters on this team,” Pihlblad said. “Quinn (Pence) hit a couple. Payton hit a couple. We had some momentum there in the third quarter. A couple of things didn’t go our way and I think we ran out of gas at the end.”

The Blazers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but Randolph answered with a 7-0 run of its own that included Kyra Pence knocking down a 3-pointer to open the scoring. Eighth-grader Skylar Herington buried a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left in the period to pull the Cardinals within four after eight minutes.

Millbrook got hot again to start the second quarter on another 7-0 run, but Quinn Pence made a 3-pointer with 5:34 remaining to make it 24-15. The Blazers eventually went ahead 31-19, but Quinn Pence’s 3-pointer with 1:16 left made it 31-22 at halftime.

“The crowd was into it. The girls were into it,” Pihlblad said. “We hit a couple of big shots.”

Herington’s 3-pointer with 6:26 left in the third quarter started a 10-0 Randolph run that made it 34-32 with 4:15 left in the frame, but Wilson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the Millbrook advantage back up to eight.

“The film we watched, she hits a couple. We were OK with the shots she was getting. That was something we were going to give up by us pinching and taking away the high post,” Pihlblad said. ” … If she hits them, she hits them. … She hit some shots in the big moments.”

The Blazers started the final quarter with a 44-37 lead that went to just five on Cardinals senior Katelyn Storer’s only bucket of the game, but Randolph would get no closer the rest of the way, turning the ball over four straight times as Millbrook went on another 7-0 run.

“This was a tough weekend for us traveling back and forth to the boys games. I was worried coming in, were we going to have enough in the tank in the second half?,” Pihlblad said. “It’s not that the girls didn’t work hard. They beat us up inside toward the end, got some offensive boards. They beat us. They are back-to-back state champs. They are a fantastic team.”

While Kyra Pence, Storer and Harper Smith will be lost to graduation, the Cardinals will return an impressive nucleus as they look for their first state title in three trips to the final four.

“These girls have worked for a long time at this. They’ve played together since they were little,” Pihlblad said. ” … We want to come back. We want this not to be just a one-time thing, this should be the expectation going forward for the next several years. … We want to get over that hurdle of winning a state championship.”

NOTES: Randolph turned the ball over 11 times. Kyra Pence had six steals and three assists; Quinn Pence and Storer each had five rebounds. … Millbrook turned the ball over 17 times. Grasseler had 14 points and nine rebounds; Fox had 7 points and 10 rebounds; and Beth Bosan had 9 points and four assists. … Section I’s Walter Panas beat Section V’s Canandaigua 61-51 in the Class AA final; Section V’s Webster Schroeder beat Section I’s White Plains 49-41 in Class A; Section V’s Waterloo beat Section I’s Putnam Valley 58-48 Class B; and Section X’s Hammond beat Section IV’s Oxford 61-37 in Class D.

RANDOLPH (45)

SSmith 0 0 0, KPence 4 0 9, QPence 2 2 8, Storer 1 0 2, Morrison 5 4 18, Herington 2 0 6, Dickerson 0 0 0, Steward 1 0 2, Bowles 0 0 0, HSmith 0 0 0. Totals 15 6 45.

MILLBROOK (59)

Heitmann 3 0 7, Bosan 3 2 9, Fox 3 1 7, Wilson 6 2 19, Grasseler 4 6 14, Moore 1 0 3. Totals 20 11 59.

3-point goals-KPence, QPence 2, Morrison 4, Herington 2, Heitmann, Bosan, Wilson 5, Moore.

Randolph 10 12 15 8 – 45

Millbrook 14 17 13 15 – 59