BIRMINGHAM — Clements’ varsity girls scratched and clawed until the bitter end on Tuesday.

Unfortunately for coach Shane Childress and his No. 4 Colts, however, it wasn’t quite enough.

Third-ranked and defending champion Trinity Presbyterian held off Clements 41-39 in the Class 3A semifinals, ending the Colts’ state title hopes at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena for the second straight year. The Wildcats defeated Childress’ group 52-48 last season for the program’s first state crown.

Trinity (25-6) got off to a fast start and eventually led by as many as 10 points in the second period before the Colts (24-10) drew to within six heading into halftime.

A 3-pointer by Lilly Smith put the Wildcats in front 32-23 at the 4:06 mark of the third quarter — but Clements ratcheted up the defensive intensity after that, holding Trinity without a basket over the next 5:21 of game time. The Colts, though, totaled just two field goals during that same stretch and could only cut their deficit to four (32-28) before the Wildcats extended the cushion back to seven (39-32) with 2:37 remaining.

But Childress’ squad didn’t fold up the tent.

Leah Childress provided a layup before Josie Childress followed with a steal and two points from the charity stripe. The former then answered a Trinity free throw with yet another layup to make it 40-38 with 25 seconds to go.

“We’ve worked on it — you’re down eight with eight minutes, you’re down six with six minutes, you’ve got four minutes, don’t panic, don’t panic,” Shane Childress said following the contest. “A lot of teams would just go down there and throw something up and think they have to get it back with four minutes left. We held our composure. They did a good job of fighting until the last second. You could see their hearts come out and the winners they are. Everything was right there, but in the end, it slipped away again. If we could’ve gotten over that hump … I think that would have been it.”

After a Mya Moskowitz free throw pushed the Wildcats’ lead back to three, Clements had a couple of opportunities to tie on its final possession. Unfortunately, Leah Childress couldn’t connect on a pair of looks from deep, and then, Tay Tay Farrar was fouled on an offensive rebound with a second left. She made the first attempt and purposely missed the second, which gave Trinity possession and ended the game.

“The first look was not a look I really wanted, but I got it back — and it was definitely one I could’ve made,” Leah Childress said of the final sequence.

Her father, though, didn’t pinpoint that single moment as the end-all, be-all.

“There was a lot of stuff we could have done,” he said. “We can’t look back on that one possession. There were a lot of possessions … I told them before the game that you’re not going to have a perfect game. How are you going to respond to what you do good and what you do bad?”

Tay Tay Farrar picked up a team-high 13 points. Leah Childress (eight), Taylor Farrar (seven), Kaley McEwen (five), Josie Childress (three) and Jakayla Farrar (three) also contributed. The Colts forced 15 turnovers on defense as well but shot just 37 percent (13 of 35) from the field.

The disappointing outcome, however, does nothing to diminish the accomplishments of the past two seasons.

During that time frame, Clements has recorded 52 wins and back-to-back county tournament titles while advancing to a pair of Final Fours.

The Colts will lose Taylor and Tay Tay Farrar to graduation but return Leah Childress, Josie Childress, McEwen and Jakayla Farrar, among others, to a team that will no doubt look to return to Birmingham in 2025 and beyond.

“The first year … I didn’t know if I was going to have enough for a team for a while,” Shane Childress said. “To go from there to where we are right now … to get the girls to believe they could achieve when they hadn’t been achieving — that’s been good fun. The life lessons I’ve got to watch them learn have been worth every minute of it.”