Until finally there were only tears.

At first there was the frustration of falling behind unbeaten Archbishop Murphy by 16 points in the third quarter.

But then suddenly there was the rising joy of a ripping rally, one that slashed the margin to three points with five minutes left. Plenty of time to keep right on charging into Saturday’s Class 2A state championship game.

But then just as suddenly, Montana-bound Alyssa Smith and her ATM teammates stopped the Mustangs’ music, using a 14-2 run to close out a 50-35 victory in Friday’s semifinals in the SunDome.

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“It’s gonna hurt, and you can see how it does,” said Prosser coach Mark Little while his emotionally spent girls filed quietly out of the lockerroom. “I love these kids so much, and I wouldn’t trade them for any team. But now we have two choices, and I know how they’ll respond.”

Just like last year, the Mustangs (23-2) will play for third and sixth place today at 3:30 p.m. against West Valley of Spokane. After Prosser’s semifinal loss a year ago, it crushed Elma the next day 79-51.

ATM had its way initially in Friday’s showdown of tournament favorites, streaking to a 34-18 lead on the hot hand of junior Shelby Lyman, who made four consecutive 3-pointers in the second period and added a fifth in the third.

When the Wildcats from Everett opened the second half scoring the first 10 points while Prosser went 0-for-9, the Mustangs’ hopes appeared sunk.

Down 16 and unable to score.

“Offensively we were pretty stagnant and the shots weren’t falling,” Little said. “But we finally started attacking the basket and I was thinking, here we go. These kids started believing it, and I started believing it.”

Starting with Tamara Jones’ 3-pointer, the Mustangs launched a 15-2 run that brought them within 36-33 with five minutes remaining. Lacie French scored and drew fouls on the last two possessions of the third quarter, and the charge continued as ATM went scoreless for five minutes.

“We took a timeout and asked for two things — get something on offense and have three quality defensive stands in a row,” said ATM coach John Barhanovich. “The point was to get them mentally sharp again.”

Smith took the first point personally. The 6-foot senior, who spent most of the game getting shut down by French, scored back-to-back layins on backdoor plays as Prosser switched to a zone.

“We’re not a team that forces things, we let it come to us,” Smith said. “We went to Shelby earlier and she’s a great shooter. When they came back on us, I just needed to do my job — make hard cuts to the basket and block out.”

“That was a big swing,” Barhanovich said. “Prosser had all the momentum and the crowd on their side, but our kids said we’re not losing this.”

Smith also came up with a steal after her rally-stopping baskets, and that triggered a succession of trips to the foul line, where ATM made eight free throws in a row in the final three minutes.

“They have solid post play, they can shoot and they’re athletic on defense,” Little said. “We just needed a little more consistency on offense.”

Lyman’s streak of five 3-pointers, four of which came in the last three minutes of the second quarter, gave her a game-high 17 points. Smith scored eight of her 13 points in the final period and her 14 rebounds led ATM to a big 44-31 edge on the boards.

Jones was Prosser’s only player in double figures with 16 points as the Mustangs were held to a season-low 12 field goals and 35 points.

“We just had a great game,” Barhanovich said. “Defensively we were outstanding and we knew we needed to be. To hold Prosser off and keep them to 35 points — we were at our best.”