But no matter what happened during the regular season, Sherman was still the reigning Section VI Class D champion.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats eliminated the top-seeded Panthers from that conversation Wednesday with a 46-37 victory at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex.

“We were kind of afraid because we don’t have any seniors. Are we going to have that extra juice you need in a game like this, playing against a team with really seasoned seniors?,” Sherman head coach Emily Eckwahl said. “That back-to-back championship was really that motivation they needed.”

Now Sherman will look to defend its sectional title and claim the 14th in program history Saturday against Forestville back at JCC. The third-seeded Hornets beat No. 2 Franklinville 49-35 in Wednesday’s second semifinal.

The Sherman Wildcats celebrate with head coach Emily Eckwahl after beating Panama in a Section VI Class D semifinal at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Steve Garvey

“You have to give Sherman credit,” Panama head coach Chris Dole said. “They came and did what they needed to do.”

The Wildcats only trailed for 2 minutes, 56 seconds against Panama.

They led 10-6 after the first quarter and 17-14 at halftime before the Panthers’ Jessica Lyon scored 10 seconds into the third quarter and Kiersten Olson scored 40 seconds later to give Panama an 18-17 lead.

“I don’t think we were looking inside enough. We started to, but when we did that we were forcing it too much instead of reversing the basketball,” Dole said. “We weren’t lining our numbers up to get the ball inside, we were just throwing it in there.”

Lyon scored again to make it 20-17, but Bria Palmatier made a pair of free throws before Baya Oehlbeck gave the lead back to Sherman on a 3-pointer with 4:14 left in the third quarter.

The Wildcats would never trail again.

Palmatier pushed the lead up to as many as eight later in the period, but the Panthers closed the quarter on a 6-0 run that included McKenna Kolstee’s basket at the buzzer.

“The first two times we met, we led the first three quarters and we just couldn’t finish in the fourth,” Eckwahl said. “We knew heading into the fourth quarter we were doing two-minute chunks. … The girls really responded and executed to a ‘T’.”

Palmatier scored three times in the first half of the fourth quarter and Oehlbeck added another 3-pointer as Sherman’s lead stood at 37-32 with 4:15 left.

“Bria is the perfect player to get a night like this. She’s one of the hardest workers, one of the best attitudes and one of the best teammates,” Eckwahl said. “She puts in all the time. It’s not always flashy on the stat sheet, but tonight she earned every one of them.”

After a pair of Panthers misses, the Wildcats’ Emmersen Crawford drove the baseline before making a one-hand pass to Palmatier in the corner. The junior guard hit her third 3-pointer of the night to make it 40-32 with 3:17 remaining.

“It’s just a matter of time before she finds her groove. In a big game like this, sometimes it takes a couple of minutes or a couple of shots to work off the nerves,” Eckwahl said of Oehlbeck. “There was no doubt in my mind, once she settled in, she’d be great.”

Panama cut its deficit to six with a pair of free throws and later to seven on a basket from Kiera Loberg with 24 seconds left, but Madison Emory hit a pair of free throws to seal the deal for Sherman.

“We’ve found ways to get back into basketball games by going inside and taking advantage of both of our posts, and then Kiera taking over at the end of the games,” Dole said. “There’s a formula there and we didn’t have all the ingredients tonight that we needed in order to be successful.”

NOTES: Oehlbeck had 19 points, five rebounds, two steals and two assists; Palmatier had 9 points, five steals and four rebounds; Crawford had 8 points; Carlie Gable had four assists, three rebounds and two steals; and Emory had four rebounds and three steals for Sherman, which shot 17 of 45 from the field, including 4 of 18 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 18 times. … Lyon had 17 points and seven rebounds; Loberg had 14 points and six rebounds; and Olson had three steals for Panama, which shot 12 of 44 from the field, including 0 of 11 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 21 times.

SHERMAN (46)

Gable 0 0 0, Emory 1 3 5, Chambers 1 0 2, Crawford 3 2 8, Palmatier 3 3 9, BOehlbeck 8 0 19, Irwin 1 0 3. Totals 17 8 46.

PANAMA (37)

Warner 0 0 0, Olson 1 0 2, Kolstee 2 0 4, Loberg 4 6 14, Lyon 5 7 17, James 0 0 0, Munsee 0 0 0, Huffman 0 0 0, Burgeson 0 0 0. Totals 12 13 37.

3-point goals–Oehlbeck 3, Irwin.

Sherman 10 7 11 18 — 46

Panama 6 8 12 11 — 37