Early in the third quarter, Sara Schmitt muscled her way to the hoop, drew a foul and was sent to the free-throw line.

After hitting her first free-throw, Schmitt's second shot clanked high off the rim ... only to be rebounded by her twin sister, Kari Schmitt. She, too, was fouled and sent to the line.

All game long, the Huron High School girls basketball team struggled to keep Canton's Schmitt sisters off the glass and away from the free-throw line in a 54-37 Class A girls basketball regional final loss Thursday night at Pioneer.

"They're physical, very aggressive," said Huron coach Steve Vinson, whose team attempted 16 free throws to Canton's 36.

"We play physical defense, too. We knew that there were going to be free throws ... I was hoping that we'd be on the positive end of that."

Kari Schmitt (7 of 10) and Sara Schmitt (6 of 10) scored more than half of their points from the free-throw line, finishing with 13 and 10, respectively.

Canton advances to the Class A quarterfinals to face Midland Dow, which defeated Flushing, 43-42, on Thursday night.

More coverage: This Story & Photo Gallery on MLive.com | Boxscore | Class A Bracket

In the opening quarter, the two teams went blow-for-blow on the offensive end, exchanging scoring punches -- and the lead -- until the final minute. There, the Rats' Yonica Dupree sliced in for a go-ahead layup before Huron capped the half in highlight fashion.

Charlise Slater, hovering her dribble on the right wing, needled a bounce pass to a cutting Devonyea Johnson, who scooped in a shot as she was fouled at 4.6 seconds, giving Huron an 11-7 lead after one.

Canton, however, quickly knotted the game early in the second. Huron pulled back in front at 5:44 after Johnson stripped the ball and marched in for a coast-to-coast lay-in, but the Chiefs went on a 10-2 run from there, leading to an eventual 22-19 halftime lead. Huron missed a tying 3-point attempt at the horn.

"We didn't hit any threes in the first half and that would've helped us," said Vinson. "That's one of our big weapons, especially when you got a team like Canton, who's big, who's clogging up the lanes. We had some good looks on the perimeter, we just didn't knock them down tonight. That certainly hurt us."

The rim wasn't any kinder to Huron in the second half, as Canton opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run to hold a double-digit lead. The Rats finally ripped the lid off on a Dupree 3-pointer at 2:32. But the Chiefs showed zero signs of slowing down.

"They're so fundamentally sound," noted Vinson. "It's hard to make them make mistakes. And hard to get them to get rattled."

Meanwhile, one could argue that the Rats appeared rattled for much of the second half.

"As good as Canton played defense, I just thought we made some bad decisions," Vinson continued. "They beat us for sure, but I think there were some things we could've done better in terms of taking care of the ball, rebounding -- we gave up too many offensive rebounds and they just got extra points there."

Taking a 38-27 lead into the fourth quarter, Canton swelled it to 45-27 on a 7-0 run in the opening three minutes.

Huron never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Dupree and Johnson led the River Rats with 10 points each. Melanie Pickert scored 12 for Canton.

Huron ends its season with a 21-4 overall record, with losses to out-of-state Cleveland Lutheran East, Detroit Country Day, Inkster and Canton.

"We lost to some really good teams this year," stated Vinson. "There are no better teams in the state. To get to the sweet 16 is fantastic. I'm very proud of the girls. I got eight seniors that I'm really proud of."

"It's disappointing to go out on the this note. I just wish we would've played better. We didn't have our 'A' game tonight."

Kaleb Roedel is a sports writer for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734)623-2562 and e-mailed at kalebroedel@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kaleb_R.