It wasn’t a great Christmas holiday for the Cottage Hill girls basketball team.

The Warriors were riddled with injuries and dealing with a 3-9 overall record.

“It was a lot for us,” point guard Dakota Freeman said. “We had so many people injured.”

The week of Jan. 9, it all changed. Cottage Hill returned all their injured players back to the rotation, and the Warriors have lost just once since.

On Wednesday, they shook off a slow start, got 21 points from Freeman and pulled away to beat Straughn 47-37 in the Class 3A South Regional final. The win sends the Cottage Hill girls to the first final four in school history.

“It’s kind of surreal at this point,” coach Brad Newton said. “It’s been a heck of a ride. We were 3-9 at Christmas and so banged up, so hurt. I felt like this was a group that we could do something special like this, but I didn’t know if we were going to get the chance. We got everyone back and, from that point forward, we won 10 of 11 and have been playing great basketball.”

The Warriors (15-13) will play Plainview or Susan Moore at noon Tuesday in the state semifinals. The Northeast Regional champ will be decided Thursday. Straughn finished 21-7.

“All year long, they’ve been told, ‘You can’t do it, you can’t do it,’ and they just wouldn’t listen to it, and they gutted out win after win after win,” Newton said. “Today wasn’t pretty at times but overall I thought we guarded really well and offensively we did enough. It’s a great win for our kids and our program.”

Cottage Hill led 20-15 at the half and 29-25 after three quarters, but Freeman took charge in the fourth. She scored eight of her team’s next 10 points as the Warriors built a 39-30 advantage.

“I just felt like every time I shot, it just happened to go in,” she said. “We bring energy together as a team and push each other. I don’t think any of us are selfish, and we push each other to be better throughout the day and even in the games.”

Straughn clawed back to within 39-34 on Allyx Williamson’s basket, but the Warriors closed on an 8-3 run to claim the victory.

“The confidence our kids are playing with right now is really incredible,” Newton said. “They believe and you can see it when they walk out on the court.”

Freeman was named MVP. She was 7-of-16 from the field and finished with 21 points. She also had 2 steals and 3 rebounds. Ashlyn Newton finished with 12 points. Sydney Roossinck pulled down 10 rebounds.

Williamson led Straughn with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ora Hall had 13 points and 6 rebounds. Cottage Hill held the Tigers to just 16-of-67 from the field and 3-of-28 from 3-point range.

They said it:

“She’s an incredible athlete, a great player. She loves to score the ball and has that ability. When she came back from injury, that was kind of the burst that has pushed us to where we are right now. She deserves a lot of credit. Our kids were playing hard but adding her to the mix as been a big difference.” – Newton on Freeman.

“It feels amazing. I feel like we all came together as a team. It’s a great opportunity for us to make it to the final four.” – Freeman.