Heidi McNeill is used to the taste of success.

A starter on Oak Harbor’s only two state qualifying girls basketball teams as a freshman and sophomore, and a district competitor as a junior, she has never missed post-season play.

That impressive run ended Tuesday night, however, as the Wildcats were officially eliminated from the playoff picture, suffering a 59-43 home loss to Arlington.

“It’s just disappointing,” McNeill said, holding back tears. “You want to continue with the success, but it can’t always go your way.”

In order for the Wildcats to make a fourth consecutive trip to the playoffs, they needed four wins of their own and four straight losses from Arlington.

Until the 5:30 mark of the fourth quarter the first step in that process seemed very attainable.

A controversial call and an offensive explosion from Arlington, however, erased those dreams.

Down 44-38, McNeill drove into the lane with a powerful two-foot stop and scored a bucket from four-feet out, while drawing contact from an opponent. Instead of calling a blocking foul, the referee ruled a charge on McNeill, erasing the basket and a potential free throw. The call drew an irate response from the usually tame OHHS head coach Brett McLeod.

“There was a little momentum on our side and it could have been a three-point play and it would have cut the lead to three,” McLeod said. “Instead they get the ball and they score on the next possession.”

The Eagles didn’t only score on the next possession — they went on a rampage.

Over the final four minutes of the game, Arlington outscored Oak Harbor 15-4, helped by back-to-back three-point baskets from Randi Richardson and Erika Davis.

McLeod didn’t fault his team’s effort over the final minutes, rather crediting the Eagles with an unbelievable performance. Arlington hit 6-of-7 shots in the fourth, three of which were from three-point range.

“I thought we had a lot of intensity,” he said. “They just made more plays than we did and they made more shots than we did down the stretch.”

The contest remained fairly tight until the fourth-quarter eruption, but the Wildcats were unable to go ahead in the second half. Their last advantage came at the 2:05 mark of the first quarter after a three-pointer from junior Jessica Brundidge put them up 11-10.

Arlington inched away in the second quarter after hitting its first four shots and was able to maintain a minimum of a six-point cushion until the final quarter. Eagle junior Randi Richardson was key to keeping her team in the lead, scoring a game-high 28 points from under the basket and beyond the three-point line.

“You think you’re on her and she steps back and nails her shots,” McLeod said.

McNeill led the Wildcats with 18 points, while junior Kyrstal Rousselle contributed eight.

OHHS fell to 3-10 in the WesCo North and 4-13 overall with the loss. They played at Stanwood last night and host their final two games next week against Mount Vernon on Tuesday, Feb. 15 and Marysville-Pilchuck on Thursday, Feb. 17.

Although the season didn’t go as she hoped, nothing would be more sweet for McNeill than to sweeping the remaining games.

“Our goal is to just spoil other teams’ seasons and if there’s a team that’s on the verge of making it to districts, we’re going to try and beat them,” she said.

Arlington 15 13 11 20 – 59

Oak Harbor 11 10 13 9 — 43

Scoring — Oak Harbor: McNeill 18, Rousselle 8, M. Smollack 7, Erickson 4, Brundidge 3, K. Smollack 3. Arlington: Richardson 28, McCormack 15, Davis 7, Welk 5, Mitzelfeldt 2, Hansen 1, Prause 1.