BUFFALO — “We get a banner!”

That was the chant that could be heard from the scrum of Fredonia Lady Hillbillies, as they were celebrating their 55-46 win over Section V’s Mynderse Lady Blue Devils (20-4) in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s girls basketball Far West Regional on Saturday night at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

“In our school, you don’t get a banner on the wall in the gym unless you win a Far West Regional,” Fredonia head coach Carol Zirkle said. “So these girls have talked for three years about getting a banner and now we will finally get a banner up on the gym wall and that’s pretty important to them.”

The Lady Hillbillies have waited a long time for the right to play in the NYSPHSAA Class B Final Four at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. And they will finally get that chance, as they got past the Lady Blue Devils with relative ease Saturday night, despite Fredonia’s leading scorer, Hannah Cybart, being held to just five points.

“The rest of the girls just stepped up and played amazing,” Zirkle said. “All of them. Katie Price, her and Hannah Gullo, I don’t know how many points they each ended up with, but they played the best games — not that they hadn’t had more points — but they were the leaders on the floor.

“Caitlyn (Cybart) played great and Zoya Katta played great defense down low,” Zirkle added. “Morgan (St. George) came in and played great defense … Everybody contributed and stepped up and these are the types of games that you hope every player will have a some point in time. Maybe not for Hannah (Cybart), I liked her last game better, but for the other girls, they really stepped up and just played amazing and played together.”

Price ended up with a game-high 17 points, Gullo chipped in 15 points and Hannah Cybart’s twin sister Caitlyn, scored 13 points — five in the first quarter and six more in the second frame.

“Caitlyn got us started,” Zirkle said. “She came out and hit that first 3-pointer and it was just amazing. She’s someone that I know that can lead us any night and fortunately (Saturday) she was hot.”

Caitlyn Cybart opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, before the Lady Blue Devils rattled of six straight points to take a 6-3 lead. A bucket by Caitlyn Cybart cut that lead to 6-5 and it would be the last time Mynderse held a lead on Fredonia the rest of the night, as Price hit the first of her four 3-pointers with about four minutes left in the opening quarter and the Lady Hillbillies never looked back.

“That’s huge that you’re leading scorer can have five points and the next three girls come up — and they can all score on any given night — but to come up (Saturday) in the Far West Regional and have those points, was just unbelievable.”

Fredonia went on to outscore Mynderse, 12-5, the rest of the way to take a 17-11 lead into the second quarter, where another bucket by Caitlyn Cybart put the Lady Hillbillies up 19-11.

Mynderse tried to make a game of it, as it went on a quick 7-0 run sparked by five points from Hannah Brown-Trice. Up just one, 19-18, Fredonia responded with a 9-0 burst of its own, highlighted by 3-pointers from Caitlyn Cybart and Gullo, to send the Lady Hillbillies into the break with a 28-18 lead.

“It’s huge,” Zirkle said of her team’s ability to answer Mynderse 7-0 run with a 9-0 spurt of their own. “We have to be able to respond to those runs. We’ve had a lot of those runs this year and we’ve been down by 10. So just to be able to come back and go into the locker room with a 10-point lead was huge.

“I thought our defense in the first half was absolutely amazing,” Zirkle added. “To hold a team of that caliber to 18 points in the first half. … It has to be every player on the floor doing their job. And we were getting great help on the back side and we held (Heidi) Miller down quite a bit.”

In the second half, despite Hannah Cybart on the bench with three fouls, the Lady Hillbillies kept up the same pace as it had in the first half, pushing its lead to 14 — 34-20 with 5:55 left in the third quarter — on back-to-back 3-pointers by Price and Gullo.

“Huge threes,” Zirkle said. “That’s when Hannah (Cybart) was sitting on the bench, so to have that 14-point lead to keep us going was just critical I think.”

Price and Gullo did all the scoring for Fredonia in the third quarter, as Price added her third and fourth 3-pointers while Gullo added a free-throw that pushed the Lady Hillbillies advantage to 41-30 with 9.8 seconds left in the frame. But a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Kayla Snyder cut the Fredonia lead to eight, 41-33.

“I’m nervous every game,” Zirkle said. “To be honest, every game (when a team hits a big shot), I think, “Is that going to be a turning point?’ But the kids have so much composure and they just responded.”

And the Lady Hillbillies certainly did respond, as they scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to push their lead back to double-digits, 45-33 with 4:54 remaining in regulation.

“They played together,” Zirkle said. “They’re a great team, they just play for each other, they love the game and they play it the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Mynderse was able to cut the Fredonia lead to six, 46-40, with Hannah Cybart picking up her fifth and final foul on hoop-and-a-harm that sent Miller to the line where she finished of the traditional three-point play and cut her team’s deficit to, 46-38, before a bucket by Mary Doell got the Lady Blue Devils to within six.

A foul shot by Morgan St. George was followed by a one-of-two trip to the charity stripe by Miller and Mynderse was within six again, 47-41, with 1:11 remaining. After Caitlyn Cybart hit a pair of free throws to put Fredonia up 49-41 with 1:01 left in the game, Miller was able to draw a foul that sent Caitlyn Cybart to the bench with her fifth personal foul. Miller connected on both and cut the Fredonia lead to six once again, 49-43. But that was as close as the Lady Blue Devils would get the rest of the way as Price, Gullo and freshman Kazlin Beers combined to go 6 of 8 from the free-throw line in the game’s final minute to seal the deal and send the Lady Hillbillies what is believed to be the program’s first-ever trip to the state semifinals.

“They were both sitting on the bench,” Zirkle noted of the Cybart sisters. “So for the rest of the girls to keep it together, go get the ball, and make key passes, it was really, really big for us.”

For Zirkle, who is in her 17th season as head coach of the Lady Hillbillies, she could not be more excited for the chance to coach in the state final four.

That journey has at least one more game left in it, as the Lady Hillbillies will square off against Section I’s Irvington on Friday, March 17, at 11:45 a.m. at Hudson Valley Community College.

“I thought that the last three games of the regular season we really started to turn it around,” Zirkle said of when she really started to believe her team could make a deep run in the playoffs. “And our defense really picked it up in those games and I thought that was critical.

“And then in each of the playoff games, I think we’ve played better defense,” Zirkle added. “And we’ve been able to shut down good ball handlers, good shooters from the outside and post players that have been a lot bigger than us. So that’s what I’ve been looking at and as we’ve been going. It’s just been an exciting journey.”

NOTES: Price added six rebounds, four assists and four steals to her 17 points… Gullo chipped in five assists and four rebounds to go with her 15 points… Caitlyn Cybart added five rebounds… Hannah Cybart finished with as many points and rebounds as she did personal fouls – five… Irvington (23-1), the No. 2 ranked team in the New York State Sportswriters Association’s latest Class B poll, defeated Section XI’s Mattituck, 62-37, on Thursday to reach the final four.

MYNDERSE (46)

Snyder 1 0 3, Doell 1 0 2, Case 2 1 7, Brown-Trice 6 1 13, Shaffer 2 0 4, Miller 4 9 13. Totals: 16 11 46. 3-Point Field Goals: Snyder 1, Case 2.

FREDONIA (55)

H. Cybart 2 1 5, C. Cybart 4 3 13, St. George 1 2 4, Price 5 3 17, Gullo 4 4 15, Beers 0 1 1. Totals: 16 14 55. 3-Point Field Goals: C. Cybart 2, Price 4, Gullo 3.

Mynderse 11 7 15 13 — 46

Fredonia 17 11 13 14 — 55