It goes back to PE class for Spring Garden’s seniors.

Maggie Jarrett looks back on the times she and her fellow seniors had in elementary school and can’t help but link that to the five players’ competitive spirits.

“We played girls versus boys because we always wanted to beat the boys every chance we could get,” she laughed. “I think just growing up together and having the connection we have, I think that’s truly helped us get this three-peat, and all the work we put in behind it.”

The group’s competitive nature once again fueled the team to a state basketball title, with the No. 1-ranked Panthers holding off Brilliant for a 73-43 win to claim the Class 1A championship for the third year in a row behind a 40-point game from Ace Austin.

The win marks the program’s 10th state basketball title.

“I’m obviously, very, very proud of this group and very proud of these five seniors setting up right here,” Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin said. “Not only is their legacy strong, they put an exclamation on it today. I thought Ace did a great job of believing her legacy even stronger the way she performed today. I couldn’t be prouder.

“I couldn’t have written a better script for how this game needed to go; everybody pitched in, everybody did the part. What a great day to be alive.”

Austin’s 40 points saw her go 14-for-27 from the field and 7-for-15 from 3-point range in what would be her final game, also adding 10 points and 8 assists for a double-double.

Naturally, the Alabama signee thought back to those days of growing up with her teammates as well.

“We’ve always been the group that we do not like losing,” the reigning Miss Basketball said. “I’m talking about playing capture the flag, if we lost, it was the end of the world for us. This whole season, we said we’re not here just to be here, it’s a business trip. We wanted to make history at our school.

“It really was for the community and the name across our chest.”

The legendary Spring Garden coach lauded his senior class for not only how it’s performed on and off the basketball court, but also how the five seniors — Jarrett, Ace Austin, Olivia Law, Avery Steward and Kristen Lewis — changed him as a person during their journey.

“I’ve never had a group affect me like this group has as a person, not just as a coach, but to make me want to do my job,” he said. I told them numerous times that I should not be standing in my shoes every day to be their head coach if I’m not willing to have as much fun as they have when they want to have fun, but work as hard as they work and that’s it’s easy to do when you’ve got a group like this pushing those buttons for me every day.”

Brilliant is set to graduate two seniors on its roster in Karagan Stanford and Macy Moore, who both started for the Tigers in the loss.

With three starters set to return for the Tigers, who made their first state title game in program history, coach Ryan Sanderson is optimistic about the future of his program.

“We’re thankful for being at this spot today. It’s tough being the last games with our seniors going out last game, but I am so blessed to coach this team,” he said. “This team has fought so hard, and we are just thankful to be here today. We give all this to God, to Him giving us a chance today to represent our school the big stage. This team, these two seniors that are leaving today, Karagan Stanford and Macy Moore, they have given this basketball program everything they’ve got and they will be missed by our team. We do have three out of the five starters returning going into next year, and you know, in a few months, we’re getting back at it.”

Stat sheet: Spring Garden — Maggie Jarrett scored 18 points and shot 6-for-10 from the field, adding 4 rebounds. Kristen Lewis had 6 points and Olivia Law added 4, with Law grabbing 2 rebounds. Montana Highfield added 3 rebounds for the Panthers. Brilliant — Brooke O’Mary, Hadlee Sanderson and Laine Johnson scored 11 points each for Brilliant, with Johnson amd Macy Moore added 5 rebounds each; Moore scored 8 points. O’Mary dished out 4 assists in the loss.

By the numbers: Spring Garden outscored Brilliant 23-6 in the paint and 9-2 off fastbreaks, outrebounding them 28-26. The Panthers shot 26-for-55 from the field and 16-for-35 from 3-point range in the win. Brilliant went 11-for-35 from the field and knocked down eight 3-point baskets. Spring Garden averaged 1.327 points per possession and Brilliant had 0.815 points per possession.

Did you know? Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin has now won 12 state championships across all sports at Spring Garden. He’s won nine state titles in girls’ basketball and three in volleyball.

They said it: “It was always a dream, but now it’s a reality, and it was just something I’ve always wanted to do, and I just give that shot all glory to God because I just thank God for letting the team be here and giving each player the ability to bring a role to the team. We have a small town, and as we have made these accomplishments, there are people every time we leave, our town is filled with people waving us goodbye. I think we also won the community back, doing something big like this, and I think there’ll be high hopes next year for them because I know they can do big things next year too.” — Brilliant’s Macy Moore on playing in the Class 1A state title game.

“I think we all knew we wanted to do this one all the way out. We feel like our job is done. We did what we wanted.” — Spring Garden senior Olivia Law on winning a state title.

“My son Cooper, he called me this morning and he said, do me a favor. He said, hit the pause button during the game and enjoy, and that was going through my head a lot in the fourth quarter, just trying to pause it, sit back, enjoy and think. This group’s just given me so much enjoyment, and it’s priceless. I’ll talk about a lot when I’m old and sitting in a rocking chair and looking at a fireplace, and these girls’ pictures will be on my mantle.” — Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin on this year.

“I’m so proud of this team, and then today’s effort, I feel like they did compete today. Hats off to Garden and coach Ricky Austin, they have a great team. Ace Austin is a great player, and they were the better team today, so congratulations to them. But this group right here, I’m so proud of; they made school history this year, first time final four, first-time state championship, so they submitted their legacy at Brilliant and they have represented their school, their county in the best way. I’m proud of my group.” — Brilliant coach Ryan Sanderson on his team.