SAGINAW MLS - Mar. 9, 2010 - The harsh truth of Michigan's one-and-done state tournament: if you're not at your best every night, your season will come to a screeching halt.

Arenac Eastern's girls basketball team didn't play with the same precision in Tuesday's regional semifinal that had garnered its second straight district championship three days earlier. Deckerville brought the Eagles' dream season to a sudden end with a 49-35 victory to advance to Thursday's regional championship game against Port Hope.

"After winning 21 games, I'm not unhappy," said AE coach Butch Beckham. ""We were just a little slow tonight for some reason. We'd been preaching execution all week, and we didn't execute tonight like we should have. It caught up with us tonight.

"But as I told the girls, I'm very proud of them and of everything they accomplished."

On offense, the shots that fell for most of the season wouldn't go down, including layups; the normally crisp passing wasn't there; and the overall execution that forced nearly all of their opponents to back down into a zone defense didn't succeed as Deckerville was quite happy to stay in man-to-man most of the night.

At the defensive end, the Eagles' usual aggressiveness was missing from its zone defense, giving Deckerville far more open looks than Michigan Lutheran Seminary had enjoyed on Friday.

And perhaps most significantly, Chelsea Dery tweaked her injured knee early in the game, and though she valiantly played through the pain, it clearly limited her mobility and effectively removed the baseline turnaround jumper from her arsenal that was a staple of the AE offense.

"She got caught in a scramble under the basket," Beckham said. "It was bothering her a lot. Each game it got a little worse, and having that happen tonight was tough.

"She wasn't her usual self; but then, none of us were."

Deckerville's Carleah Kramer, who led all scorers with 18 points, opened with a 3-pointer, and Tiffany Smith added another midway through the first quarter make it 8-3.

AE fought back to take the lead twice in the second quarter -- both times on Maddie Nelson rebound baskets -- but a Shelby McVittie steal-and-score and two inside hoops from Chelsea Kritzman put Deckerville up 25-20 at the half.

Things really came unraveled for AE in the third quarter. Kramer and Kelsey Smith each hit 3-pointers, AE's Ashley Navarre picked up her third and fourth fouls, and a technical foul gave Deckerville two more points.

Briana Dery scored twice late in the third quarter to get AE within six, but a pair of untimely turnovers cost Eastern the chance to pull even closer.

Deckerville opened the fourth quarter with a 7-1 run to put the game away. Kramer hit all six of her free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the game out of reach for AE.

Deckerville (13-10), winners of seven of nine games after losing eight of nine during a mid-season slump, was led by Kramer with 18 and Kritzman with 11.

Eastern (21-2) was led by Briana Dery with 10 points and Nelson with eight. The Eagles return four of their regular seven players for next season but graduates seniors Chelsea and Briana Dery and Danielle Jurek.

"We'll have some rebuilding to do," Beckham said. "We have some other kids coming in who need to step up.

"I'm just so proud of what this team did, though. It's not easy (to have the season end). If you don't win the state championship, you end the season with a loss. So there you go."