BROOKINGS – The Brookings Bobcats made a bid to upset the top team in Class AA, but Sioux Falls Jefferson used a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter to hand the Bobcats a 52-40 loss at Bob Jostad Gymnasium in Brookings on Tuesday night.

The Bobcats were in front for most of the game, even carrying a 35-32 lead with 6:18 to play but Hannah Harpe’s bucket with just over four minutes to go sparked the Warriors’ big run and allowed them to escape with the win.

“As coaches, we love this team,” Brookings head coach Mitch McLagan said of the Bobcats. “It would be so easy not to show up when you’re playing the No. 1 team in the state and our kids weren’t scared. They executed a game plan and I felt like we dominated the game for 29 minutes. We just have to get better at our late-game situations.”

While the Warriors got the victory, the Bobcats were in control for most of the night. Their defense was one of the big reasons why holding Sioux Falls Washington to 22 percent from the floor in the first half.

“They’re so long, so you have to be super active,” McLagan said. “We were physical and that had to be our game plan. We got called for a lot of fouls but our girls were flying around and doing some really good things on defense.”

The Bobcats’ offense also did its job in the first half despite going up against a Warriors team that came into Tuesday night allowing 38.5 points per game. Logan Smidt knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to help Brookings take a 10-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and the Bobcats ran their lead up to six points in the second quarter before the Warriors used a 1-3-1 zone to take a 20-19 lead into halftime.

Even as the second half began, the Bobcats didn’t back down. Smidt knocked down two more 3-pointers as Brookings took a 30-28 lead into the fourth quarter and the Bobcats had an opportunity to extend their lead as they entered the double bonus.

Brookings’ issues at the charity stripe allowed the Warriors to get back into the game, however, as they converted just 8-of-18 free throws on the night. Several of the Bobcats’ 22 turnovers also occurred down the stretch and Sioux Falls Washington made its big run to put the game away.

“We’ve turned the ball over in really big moments late in games and we have to figure out why that’s happening,” McLagan said. “If we need to call a timeout and slow our kids down a bit or just figure out what’s going on…our late-game possessions just were not very good tonight.”

Despite the loss, there were plenty of positives. Smidt finished with 16 points and Sophia Hammrich had eight points and five rebounds on the night. Kymber Buys had five points and two rebounds and the Bobcats shot 40.6 percent for the game and 47.1 percent in the first half.

The Bobcats also did a good job defensively to limit the Warriors to 39 percent shooting but Sioux Falls Washington rebounded to shoot 61 percent in the second half. Although Grace Peterson had 14 points and seven rebounds and Brooklyn Harpe had 10 points and seven rebounds, McLagan was happy with his team’s effort as they played their 10th game of the year against an opponent over .500.

“We’ve played three of the top five teams in the past week and a half,” McLagan said. “I thought we should have beat all of them. We’ve played a tough schedule but our kids are showing up every day. I thought we were the better team for 29 minutes [tonight] and I hope our kids can see where that can take us going forward. We’re going to have to play a good team to get to the state tournament, so we’ve got to keep playing like we have, have a good stretch here and see if we can knock one of those good teams off.”

The Bobcats, who fell to 2-10 on the season, will now enter a favorable stretch of their schedule where they will play three straight games against teams with a losing record and six of their final eight games at home beginning with Friday’s game against Sioux Falls Jefferson.