LOWELL — South Hadley girls basketball head coach Paul Dubuc said his team didn’t show up to the Tsongas Center for a moral victory. That very well could be true, but the Tigers did one thing that no other team in Division 4 had done in the postseason: put up a fight against No. 1 Cathedral.

The state-champion Panthers, which beat South Hadley in the championship for the second straight season on Sunday to claim their third consecutive title, practically walked through the entire field en route to their seventh Massachusetts crown in the last 10 years. Cathedral came in only giving up an average of 30 points per game across its four tournament games, and had wins of 40 (semifinals), 39 (quarterfinals), 24 (Round of 16) and 38 (Round of 32) points before matching up with the Tigers over the weekend.

Yes, on paper, the finals can be chalked up as another drubbing for the No. 1 Panthers as they defeated No. 3 South Hadley by 31 (68-37), but the amount of preparation Cathedral and head coach Clinton Lassiter put forth prior to Sunday’s contest speaks volumes to the amount of respect he had for the Tigers as an opponent.

“I watched so many of their games, because Coach [Dubuc] does a great job of switching defenses,” Lassiter said. “Their girls execute very well and they stick together. Last year at this time, we were down 10 [points] in the second quarter, and they just outplayed us. I think last year fatigue set in. That’s why I didn’t go with our press in the beginning. They were prepared for that, they’re too smart.”

Lassiter admitted that South Hadley was a handful to deal with. Just as Cathedral came prepared for the Tigers, Dubuc & Co. were just as ready for the Panthers.

Cara Dean scored five unanswered points to bring the game within one in the first quarter, and in the second quarter with the Tigers trailing by eight, Dean drove in and banked home a shot while being sent to the floor by contact.

What looked like an obvious defensive foul was called a charge, giving Dean her second and taking three potential South Hadley points off the board. On the next trip down, Cathedral’s Malani Smith rattled home a 3 – making it a six-point swing in favor of the Panthers.

It turned into a 12-2 extended run for Cathedral as the favorites held firm on a 15-point lead (26-11) with four minutes until halftime. South Hadley outscored its opponent 6-4 the rest of the way, with Olivia Athas converting on a two in the closing moments of the quarter. The Tigers only trailed 30-17 at intermission.

“They stay poised, they know their stuff and they stay committed,” Lassiter said. “In the first half, we were up 13, but they were right there… They had nine offensive rebounds in the first half. They were in the game… They just missed opportunities. But at any point, they can go.”

Dean did pick up her third foul in the second quarter, which caused her to play on the passive side the rest of the first and most of the second half. She ultimately finished with a game-high 19 points, but Lassiter believes the game could have played out a bit differently had that whistle gone the other way.

Cathedral had no answer for the sophomore.

“Having one of their players get in foul trouble early, that psyche, because they only go about seven deep, having one of their better players go out early sort of changed their game plan a little bit,” Lassiter said.

The Panthers’ coaching staff was most impressed with the versatility in which the Tigers have on the offensive end. Most teams have one or two players that do the bulk of the scoring, but South Hadley spreads it out and it has for several years now. Lassiter wanted to focus heavily on sophomore Kate Phillips, but that allowed Dean to go to work.

The Tigers also have Ava Asselin, CC Gurek, Caitlin Dean, Olivia Athas and Maddie Soderbaum. Six of those seven players mentioned scored 125 points or more this season, with the other connecting on eight triples as part of 80 points on the year.

Again, the scoreboard may have shown that South Hadley never had a chance, however Lassiter says the Tigers made life more difficult on Cathedral than any other team it faced in March.

“Again, [Dubuc] does a great job, the girls – they’ve got good seniors but also some young kids that played a lot of minutes,” Lassiter said.