Princess Pe and her Central Valley High School freshman girls basketball teammates didn't gloat following Thursday's 24-22 win over crosstown-rival Ceres High.

The host Hawks edged out the Bulldogs for the Western Athletic Conference title.

Central Valley (11-1) finished one game ahead of Ceres High (10-2) in the league standings.

Hawk players and head coach Amanda Lopez celebrated behind the closed door of a training room after completing their championship run.

"I'm so happy," Pe said. "We worked so hard to get here. We wanted first. We knew we could get it."

Princess paced the Hawks with a game-high 13 points.

Lindsey Alexander and Lynaya Lerma contributed four points each.

Melissa Afortunado added three points.

Hilsa Alvarado tallied a team-high 11 points for the Bulldogs. She made five of eight free throws.

Jewel Miranda and Destiny Reed had nine and two points, respectively.

Ceres High trailed by just one point, 15-14, at the end of the third quarter.

Central Valley increased its lead to six with a 7-0 run midway through the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs cut the deficit to 22-19 with 41 seconds to play.

Pe had five points in the final period. She made two foul shots in the waning seconds to secure the victory.

"My free throws have been so off for the past week," Princess said. "I stopped thinking too hard about it. All I knew was I had to make one."

The Hawks avoided overtime because of Pe's clutch shooting.

Miranda hit a desperation, half-court shot at the buzzer.

Central Valley and Ceres High entered last week's game with identical records.

The Hawks prevailed.

The Bulldogs put up a valiant fight in defeat.

"I'm proud of my team," Alvarado said. "We tried as hard as we could. We know we could have done better."

The two teams will face off twice at the junior-varsity level next season.

"It's a good rivalry," Pe said.