AUBURN — A year ago, the Camas girls basketball team was fine with the result.

Not thrilled, but OK, you know.

This year, complete sadness. This was not the week the Papermakers’ season was supposed to end.

“We definitely thought we could have gone farther,” junior Melissa Williams said. “Our ultimate goal was to get to state. That didn’t happen so we’re obviously disappointed.”

The Yelm Tornados made seven 3-pointers, including three from Samantha Jennen, then held off the cold-shooting Papermakers for a 45-39 victory in a winner-to-state/loser-out contest in the Class 3A bi-district tournament.

“It’s always hard to talk to 15 girls who are bawling their eyes out,” Camas coach Kent Thomas said, referring to the post-game meeting. “I’m glad that it hurts. It should hurt. But it’s a good kind of pain. It’s a pain that means they knew they accomplished something (this season), and they knew they could do better.

“We’re very disappointed. I don’t want to say it’s shocking, but we expected to win last Friday and we expected to win tonight. Last year was ‘Gosh, isn’t this great to be here?’ This year, our mind-set was totally different.”

The 3A district champions went two-and-out in this tournament, coming up a win short of going to the Tacoma Dome for the first time in school history. The Papermakers were a state participant in 1978, long before the current format, long before the Tacoma Dome became the host of the state championships.

At the same time, the Papermakers know they are getting closer.

“It’s definitely the best experience I could ever imagine,” said senior Haley Smith, who had seven points and eight rebounds in her final game. “We get to put something on the banner (the district title), which is something we haven’t done since 1978.”

Williams agreed.

“We’re trying to live in the moment now,” she said. “We’re happy and sad.”

While Wednesday’s loss stings, Thomas hopes this team will be remembered for bringing higher expectations to Camas girls basketball.

“This team, these kids, elevated our community, elevated our program, and they erased 30, 40 years of disappointment,” Thomas said. “The more we do this, the better we’ll get at it, and we’ll learn to play with success better.”

Yelm scored the first 11 points of Wednesday’s game and never trailed. Camas went 1 for 13 with eight turnovers in that first quarter.

“It was like there was a seal on the basket,” said Williams, who scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half. “Nothing would go in. I was proud of my team for not giving up. That was probably our worst quarter, shooting-wise, we’ve played.”

Camas quickly cut the deficit to four points in the second quarter — led by Katelyn Henson, who had eight of her 11 points in the first half.

Jennen would hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close the half, giving the Tornados a 27-15 lead.

Williams, who also had a game-high 12 rebounds, scored 10 of Camas’ 12 points in the third quarter as the Papermakers got to within seven points.

But the turnovers and missed shots returned to Camas in the fourth quarter. A free throw by Henson made it a six-point game, but Jennsen responded again with a 3-ball for a nine-point lead midway through the period.

Camas would cut the lead to four points on three ocassions — including back-to-back buckets by Smith — but Yelm made enough free throws to maintain its cushion.

Austin Schorno led the Tornados with 14 points, 10 in the second half.

Camas finished 16 of 62 from the floor — and actually shot better than Yelm. The Tornados were 16 of 65. The difference: Yelm made those seven 3-pointers, while Camas was 0 for 7 from long range.

“We haven’t shot that poorly all year, and we got good looks,” Thomas said.

Some nights, the ball just doesn’t find its target.

“We never gave up,” Smith said. “We were playing 100 percent the whole time.”