MARIETTA — A season that started with so much promise for Forsyth Central's girls ended with a thud Friday, as the Lady Bulldogs fell to Pope 42-39 in the first round of the state Class AAAA state tournament.Free throw shooting — a goblin that has haunted Central throughout the season — reared its head again, as the Lady Bulldogs (22-7) mustered just a 5-for-18 performance from the charity stripe, including eight straight misses in the fourth quarter."I've been saying all year ... that I was waiting on us to play our best game, and I think tonight that we may have shown up and played our worst game," said Central coach Andy Martin.Central held a 36-30 lead with just over two minutes to play, but was outscored 12-3 in the closing minutes.Keeley Chester had a team-high 13 points and Anna Blackburn added 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs.Despite the sting of defeat being so fresh, Martin tried to point to bright spots from a season that saw Central advance to state for the second year in a row after what had been a 24-year drought for the program."We stepped into a good region and proved ourselves worthy of playing with top-flight teams, but we also proved tonight that we haven't yet arrived and it's really disappointing."For complete coverage of the game, see the next edition of the Forsyth County News.