15 points. 10 points. 5 points. 3 points. 2 points. Tie. The Blue Valley Northwest (BVNW) girls basketball team watched their well established lead slip through their fingertips in their first sub-state game against Shawnee Mission South (SMS) last night. With three minutes left in the game, the Raiders took their first lead of the night and the Huskies, unable to reclaim it, suffered a season ending loss with a final score of 39-49. The team finished the year with a 8-13 record.

Both teams hit a dry spell to start the game, and the scoreboard remained empty until the three minute mark. Sophomore Mya Mertz opened the game up on a transition layup from junior Deanna Bugarinovic, and junior Sarah Fugate hit a three on the following play. The Raiders were unable to score until the seven minute mark, and at the end of the first quarter the Huskies had snatched an early 13-5 lead.

“I think we started out really strong,” senior Lauren Mertz said. “We jumped out on them and we got up to a pretty big lead. I was really proud of that.”

Despite the early start, the Huskies were only able to score eight points in the second quarter compared to the Raider’s 14. BVNW had multiple players begin to get into foul trouble and several began to choke under the Raider’s press defense. At the conclusion of the half, the Raider’s had cut the Huskies’ lead to 21-19.

At halftime, head coach Brian Bubalo urged his team to calm down. He reminded the Huskies of their press offense and reviewed defensive plays, hoping to placate the jumpiness that had settled over the team.

“We had this game won,” Bubalo said. “We missed some easy shots we should’ve been making. We had turnovers against the press. We just got a little rattled and started to run away from the ball. We left our passers without anybody to pass to.”

Bubalo’s halftime pep talked appeared to work at first. The Huskies jumped out to a solid alternating eight to ten point lead and began to relax into the flow of the game. While their outside shots weren’t falling, several dishes into Mertz and multiple drives by junior Lade Adepoju found their mark. At the end of the third quarter, the Huskies were up 32-25.

However, disaster struck fourth quarter. The Raider’s weren’t going down so easily, and with a little help from what the Huskies considered poor officiating calls, BVNW’s lead slowly became smaller and smaller.

“I think we weren’t mentally strong in the fourth quarter,” Mertz said. “We couldn’t finish. I think we let some of the calls get to us and we could’ve reacted better to those.”

While the Huskies never stopped fighting, once they relinquished their lead with three minutes to go in the game, they were unable to recover it. According to Mertz, the season showed a lot of grit in her team.

“I think that we overcame a lot of stuff individually as a team,” Mertz said. “This is a great foundation for coming years.”

While Bubalo said he was proud of the way his team fought, he admitted to being frustrated at the fourth quarter performance.

“You know, you work on it and you work on,” Bubalo said. “But the only way it’s going to click permanently is when you do it right in a game. And they haven’t done that yet. It’ll take some time. It’s tough for the seniors because it won’t happen for them, but it’ll happen eventually. We’ve learned a lot this year and laid a good foundation for years to come. Even though the wins aren’t there, we’ve made progress. So it was tough tonight, frustrating for me and the girls. They know what they need to do and what’s expected from them, but it just doesn’t happen sometimes.”

Despite the less than satisfactory win-loss record, Bubalo said he’s amazed at how far his team has come. The Huskies started playing as a team and following instruction better, Bubalo said, and despite the tough losses the Huskies always kept their heads up.

“We were being patient with the basketball, we were getting the ball to the post players, we were playing better defense and keeping ourselves in games,” Bubalo said. “It’s been a fantastic group. We’ve had a lot of tough losses, and those take a lot out of you. It’s so hard to come to practice when you keep losing by five, or losing in double overtime, or keep letting leads go in the fourth quarter. But the girls never complained or pointed fingers. They pulled it together and played through it. I couldn’t be prouder of them. For me, it was a successful season, maybe not in wins and losses, but in a lot of other ways.”