The Marion girls' basketball program turned a couple of significant "Paiges" at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines last week.

Three-time first-team all-state guard Morgan Paige wrapped up her brilliant four-year career, and head coach Sherryl Gaffney-Paige, Morgan's mom, turned in her resignation.

It all happened March 2 after the eighth-ranked Indians lost to No. 1-ranked Sioux City Bishop Heelan, 69-62, in a hard-fought quarterfinal-round game at the Class 3A girls' state basketball tournament.

Marion concluded the most successful season in its history with a final record of 23-2. The Indians had won 17 straight games coming into the tournament, but didn't have enough for the Crusaders, who are led by all-state guard and 2010 Miss Iowa Basketball Carli Tritz. Heelan went on to win the 3A state championship.

Morgan Paige scored a Class 3A single-game state tournament record 34 points in the loss, and was named to the 3A All-Tournament team despite playing in just one game. She really couldn't appreciate the scoring record in the moments after the loss to Heelan.

"It doesn't really feel that good now, but it feels good to leave it all on the floor," Paige said. "It's a good way to go out."

She instead preferred to reflect on a season and a career just ended.

"We have a lot of seniors on our team, and it was a really good experience for all of us just to come together," Paige said. "We've been playing together since second grade and it's been meaning a lot to us. So it was really nice to get to the state tournament … and just being here is like the icing on the cake, even though it would have tasted sweeter with a win."

It was a sentiment shared by all of the players and Coach Gaffney-Paige. Eight seniors will be lost to graduation, including starters Paige, Brittany Fish, Amanda Peterson, Maggie Murphy and Alli O'Neil.

"We accomplished a lot of our goals; we just didn't reach that big one at the end," said Fish, who was held to three points in the loss to Heelan, about 10 below her season average. "We're really happy. We can look back and be real proud with what we did, but it stings a little bit right now."

Gaffney-Paige announced her resignation shortly after the game, saying she wants to have the opportunity to watch her son, Marcus Paige, play his final two seasons at Linn-Mar. Marcus Paige is a highly recruited sophomore point guard who has helped the Linn-Mar boys' team back to this week's state tournament for the seventh straight year. He has missed most of the Lions' last three games, however, with mononucleosis.

Gaffney-Paige compiled a 126-96 record in her 10-year tenure as head coach, including an 83-14 mark the last four years while her daughter started at point guard. The Indians advanced to the state tournament two of the past three years, and Gaffney-Paige certainly walked away on top.

"I'm very proud of this group of girls. Its senior-led and they've done everything we've asked them to do," Gaffney-Paige said.

"This whole 3A field is tough. There are quality teams at every single game. As much as I wanted to win that game, I'm happy with their efforts."

Marion came out with a vengeance against Heelan, and with Paige scoring 11 points the Indians led, 14-5, just 4 minutes into the game. But the Crusaders took off their press, settled more into a half-court game, and used a 16-5 second quarter run to take a 30-24 lead with 5:14 left in the half.

The Crusaders led 32-28 at halftime, 50-41 at the end of the third quarter and by as many as 16 (62-46) midway through the fourth period.

Paige had 16 points at halftime, then tacked on another 18 in the second half. She finished 11 of 21 from the floor (4 of 8 3-pointers) and 8 of 9 from the free throw line. She also dished out six assists.

"Our game plan was to be ready for their press because that's what they do, that's their bread-and-butter. We focused a lot on that in practice," Paige said.

No other Marion player scored in double figures. Murphy finished with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.

"It's just a privilege to be here and to have won the first one would have been great," Paige said. "But coming from our conference and (losing to) a team like that, it's good to know you lost to a quality team."