When it was over, Deondre Johnson just sat on the court for a long moment before his brother Darryl Jackson helped him to his feet.

The Goldbacks led the Section 1 champion North Rockland Red Raiders by four points at halftime, but North Rockland outscored them by nine points in the third on fourth quarters, ending Newburgh’s season with a 53-46 loss in Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association regional championship game at Yorktown High School.

“There’s a lot of emotions,” Johnson said. “That’s my last basketball game. Going out like this was unexpected.”

For many, the fact that they were there at all may have been unexpected. The Goldbacks started 0-3 in December, missing most of their team early on, but hit their stride in January.

It wasn’t even the first time the Goldbacks faced the Red Raiders, having pulled out a 49-46 win on Jan. 27. They advanced to the regional championship game by holding off Section 4 champion Elmira on March 7 at Johnson City High School.

“Everyone doubted us from the beginning after starting 0-3,” Johnson said. “For us to finish in this position, while it’s not the best position, it’s the position we wished for.”

They would have preferred to be in the Red Raiders’ position, which is going to the Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Friday for a state semifinal game against Section 3 champion Liverpool, which beat Section 2 champion Green Tech on Saturday at the SRC Arena in Syracuse.

Instead, the Goldbacks will have to settle for being a being a state regional finalist on top of their third straight Section 9 championship under a rookie head coach.

“I just told them I was proud of them,” Newburgh coach Jason McAllister said. “I love them. This was my first year as head coach and I’ll never forget these guys. We won a section title together, They’ve been together since before Thanksgiving and it’s March and about to be spring break. We spent a good portion of the year together, and I’ll remember these guys for the rest of my life.”

The Goldbacks got off to an early lead behind some early shooting by Jaydan Lorenzo and Elnathan Johnson, and took a 26-22 lead into halftime.

However, the Red Raiders responded immediate as a quick steal and basket from Yariel Gomez, who finished with 11 points, and then a layup from Elijah Barclay, who finished with 13 points, tied the game at 26-26.

However, it was a midrange jump shot by Connor Wein, who finished with a game-high 15 points gave the Red Raiders the lead for good with 3:02 left in the third quarter.

“They didn’t take us out of our game,” Johnson said. “We took ourselves out of the game. We started playing selfish one-on-one basketball. We didn’t stay together like we did in the first half, and we just weren’t connecting.”

Jaydan Lorenzo led the Goldbacks with 14 points. Johnson added 13.

“It’s a family,” Johnson said. “It’s not just a team.”