It was a rough second period that hurt the Northwestern girls’ basketball team last week, as they hosted a huge league matchup against co-leader Ben Logan last week in Springfield. The Raiders held a slim three-point lead headed into the second period, but the Warriors struggled in the second, outscored by 12 points, leading to a tough 53-46 defeat to Ben Logan.

“It was a tough loss, the girls have a goal of a conference championship,” said Northwestern coach Aaron Stewart. “I told them we have to get back to work (tomorrow) with another conference game coming up.”

“The bad is that we lost, the good thing is we get them again at their place. The thing we have to do is take care of business between now and them to give us a chance;”

“We did a lot of different schemes trying to throw them off, but you could see we were drained in the second quarter.“

With the loss, the Raiders take over sole possession of the Mad River Division of the CBC, while Northwestern is now one game back. The two teams will meet again on the last night of the regular season at Ben Logan on February 4.

The Warriors (9-3, 4-1) had a big game from Katelyn Partlow, with 21 points and nine rebounds, but she would be the only Northwestern player to reach double figures. Jenna Robbins added nine points while Korynne Berner and Abby Zerkle each scored seven in the loss.

“Katelyn played her best game by far this year going 9-10 from the field,” Stewart said. “I talked to her two weeks ago, and I told her it is her senior year, you play to have fun and she has had back to back games in double figures. Hopefully she is back everyone knows what she is capable of.”

“The girls have a good positive attitude, but we are still in contention.”

Ben Logan sophomore Nikki Current led all scorers with 24, while Hayley Boysel and Natalie Drumm each scored ten in the victory.

“We are just going to have to play the two defenses that are successful for us, “Stewart said. “We tried to play a box-and-one and 2-3 and mix things up. Nikki is a good player and understands the game.”

Northwestern held Ben Logan to only 20 second half points, but their fourth quarter comeback wasn’t enough to knock off the league leading Raiders.

“We increased the intensity from being in a hole, but we ran out of time. That was the second highest point total we have given up this year.”

Also on Saturday, Northwestern defeated Greenon 67-22. Zerkle led with 23, Berner added 12, while Partlow and Robbins each scored 10.

Northwestern hosts Shawnee tonight, and plays at Graham on Saturday.