TACOMA--Two and out was nothing to pout about for Kennedy Catholic High School head coach Don Hoffman and his Lancers.

After all, they were playing in the state final eight to cap off an impressive 17-4 overall season.

"It was a great run for us," said Hoffman after a 61-41 loss to the O'Dea Fighting Irish from Seattle that ended his team's season Friday. "It just didn't happen like we wanted it to, but it was a great season. It was a fun season."

JFK drew No. 1-ranked Kamiakin to open the tournament action in the Tacoma Dome and hung tough against the Braves before losing, 58-47.

"Last night we had great chances of winning many times," said Hoffman of Thursday's game.

The Lancers fell behind, 9-2, in the first quarter and still trailed, 17-9, at the end of the period. They continued to fall behind, 22-11, and 25-13, in the second quarter, but came back to close the halftime gap to 30-23.

The battling back continued in the second half.

An outside shot by Sam Braxton of Kennedy Catholic made it 41-38 with 6:43 to play in the fourth quarter and a miss and own putback by Jason Thompson with 6:07 to play cut the Braves' lead further to two points at 42-40.

But with the score 43-40 at the 5:55 mark the Braves went on a rampage and put together a seven-point string to turn the Lancers back. Kamiakin made the last six points of the game on free throws in the final 42.5 seconds.

"We started making a run, but just couldn't get those last couple of points," said Kennedy Catholic senior Mitch Penner.

Penner led the Lancers' efforts, as he has most of the year, with 23 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.

"They threw a couple of different guys at me," Penner said of the Braves.

"They weren't going down for me today."

Anthony McCluskey added 12 points as Thompson and Cole Madison scored four apiece. Braxton and Josh Sierhuis both added two.

Next up for the Lancers was O'Dea, an all boys fellow Catholic school in Seattle.

O'Dea went out front early, 9-5, before Penner swished in two free throws at 2:18 to play in the first quarter to make it 9-7.

But Dana Abe of the Fighting Irish slammed home a basket at 1:23 to go and Sekou Wiggs hit a free throw at the 46.3 second mark to put the first quarter score at 12-7.

Kennedy fought back to make it 26-25 at the 6:38 mark of the third quarter, as Penner made a basket and free throw and Madison hit an outside shot.

Wiggs answered with a three-point bomb at 6:20 to go in the third quarter to make it, 29-25, and send O'Dea on its way to victory, however.

The Fighting Irish led, 48-32, by thee nd of the third quarter and outscore JFK, 13-9, in the fourth.

"I thought we competed well today and they ended up taking it to us in the fourth," said Hoffman.

Penner tossed in 21 points for the Lancers against O'Dea, and he also hauled down nine rebounds and had two sealts along with Joe Greaney. Madison was next with seven points as Ramsey scored five, AJ McGrew four and Joe Greaney two. Braxton and Thompson each hit one.

Jalen Ward led O'Dea with 19 points as Wiggs scored 12 and Jacob Lampkin 10.

Kennedy players this year included Sam Braxton, Donnie Tyson, Mitch Sasonoff, Anthony McCluskey, AJ McGrew, Joe Greaney, Jason Thompson, Mitch Penner, Colton Ramsey, Josh Sierhuis, Cole Madison and Dez Thompson.

Hoffman was assisted by An Lieu, Greg Caldwell and Josh White.