DARLINGTON — In its final game of the 2023-24 regular season, Darlington suffered a 58-22 loss at home to No. 7 Cuba City on Thursday.

The loss dropped the Redbirds to 9-5 in the SWAL (16-8 overall), but a 51-46 loss on the same night from Fennimore (15-9, 8-6) to Mineral Point (19-4, 12-2) prevented a two-way tie for third in the conference.

Sadie Goebel (5 pts) had hot hands early for Darlington — she put up both of her squad’s baskets to keep the Redbirds tied with the Cubans (20-4, 14-0) at 5-5 by 13:26. 

Maddie Gratz (9 pts, 6 reb) drained a pair of free throws two minutes later, complimented by a fast break two from Jaidyn Evenstad moments after. The pair’s scores traded the lead in favor of the Redbirds, 9-8. 

Moments later, Cuba City’s Emily Weigman (7 pts) put down a 2-pointer with 8:58 left in the half that proved to be the final lead change.

The Cubans put an 11-point gap between themselves and Darlington to the 3-minute mark, courtesy of shots from Olivia Olson (24 pts), Savannah Kreger (2 pts), and Ashley Rowe (11 pts).

Gratz found her shots fall again after the Cuban run, making both of her next attempts, to climb within eight points of Cuba City, 22-14, by 1:46.

An Evenstad 3-point play saw the deficit trim to 22-17 with 28.1 left on the clock, but a buzzer beater by Dea Crist (7 pts) pushed the Cubans back to a 7-point lead.

“In the first half, we made it a half-court game,” Redbird head coach Brad Solberg said. “We moved the ball well and forced them to guard multiple sides of the floor. As a result, they weren’t able to get their transition game going. It’s hard to do that for a full game against a team like Cuba City.”

Out of the break, Cuba City scuttled Darlington’s game plan, and it resulted in a 5-point scoring effort from the Redbirds over the closing 18-minutes of Thursday’s game.

“Darlington was ready to play, and did a number of different things offensively in the first half,” Cuban head coach Jason Derby said. “In the second half, we really played well defensively. Our defense combined with some Redbirds missed shots resulted in only five Darlington points in the second half.”

Darlington has the opportunity to redeem itself in tournament play, and Solberg has his eyes set on the No. 6-seeded Redbirds’ first-round opponent — No. 11 seed Boscobel (7-16, 3-11).

“We know the Bulldogs will come in ready to go,” he said. “They have one of the best players in the conference in Erin Knowles.”