WEBSTER – There are no guarantees in sports, no rite of passage that says if you lose a championship game one season that next year it's your turn.

But that's the way the Rush-Henrietta girls felt and that's the way they played at Webster Schroeder High School. After losing in the Class AA title game last winter to Gates Chili, "unfinished business" was their season-long theme. On Friday night, the top seeds took care of business and beat rival Penfield, 49-33, to capture their first Section V championship since 2008.

"Last year we learned it doesn't feel really good to lose," said Dana Watts, the R-H senior forward who was named tournament MVP with 17 points.

The Royal Comets (21-0) will carry that feeling with them to Buffalo State next Saturday when they play the Section VI champion in the state quarterfinals.

"This was by far the most rewarding (win)," said R-H coach Steve Shepanski, whose teams actually won titles from 2004-08. "I've seen these kids develop from ninth-grade, eighth-grade level. We dealt with a rash of injuries a couple of years ago. Dana went down; Reilly (Smyth) went down. These kids bounced back.

"We knew we'd be good this year. We didn't know how special it would be, but 21-0 — you couldn't have written the script any better."

R-H got its typical balance from the usual players. Watts did her thing, taking the ball right at her counterpart, Penfield's 6-foot-1 center Emma Guy (16 points). Watts and fellow senior forwards Emily Nestler (eight points) and Sarah Sweazy all had seven rebounds, out-towering the Partriots (15-5) like they do most smaller foes.

Sweazy scored all of her seven points in the final 5½ minutes, helping R-H close the game out after Penfield trimmed what ballooned to a 16-point lead to 10 early in the fourth quarter. Junior point guard Destinee Johnson triggered the initial separation, drilling back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the third.

"I was nervous out there. I wasn't hitting at first, but once I settled down I made them," said Johnson, who finished with three 3-pointers and 11 points, about seven above her average.

They were back-breakers because even though it was a sloppy first half that saw Penfield fall behind by 11 points, the R-H lead was just 18-11 at halftime. The Comets' pressure defense bothered Penfield, and Shepanski thought Guy's presence had his bigs rushing shots.

R-H had won both Monroe County regular-season meetings, 50-33 on Feb. 17 and 54-47 on Jan. 16, and it pulled away late. After Penfield's Ali Fitzgerald hit at 3-pointer to make it a 10-point game with six minutes left, Watts sandwiched four points around an and-1 three-point play by Sweazy.

"That's a senior-dominated group," Penfield coach Mark Vogt said. "Those girls have worked hard. Hopefully our kids have learned something."

Nestler and Watts, R-H's anchors, sure did come of age in their four-year careers.

"I couldn't be more proud of every one of them," Nestler said of her teammates. "That's the beauty of our team. Everybody came to play."

JDIVERON@DemocratandChronicle.com

www.Twitter.com/@RocDevo 

PENFIELD: Emma Guy 16, Sophie Loewenguth 2, Kristen Baumer 6, Brianne Moxley 0, Ali Fitzgerald 7, Makaila Wilson 2, Mary Doyle 0, Johanna Gregory 0, Isabella Delisanti 0, Jill Pancio 0.

R-H: Dana Watts 17, Emily Nestler 8, Sarah Sweazy 7, Destinee Johnson 11, Reilly Smyth 4, Jasmine Watts 0, Katie Kelly 2.

3-point goals: Johnson 3.

All-Tournament team: Lauren Anten (Hilton), Savannah Crocetti (Irondequoit), Destinee Johnson (R-H), Makaila Wilson (Penfield), Emily Nestler (R-H). MVP: Dana Watts (R-H).