“A loose ball is up for grabs in South Whidbey’s game against Moun t Baker on Friday. Falcon Josh Neff is in the center of the action.Jim Larsen, staff photoA disastrous first quarter combined with one of the toughest defenses in the North Cascades Conference made an ugly basketball game Friday night as Mount Baker beat the South Whidbey boys 74-38.Eight Falcon turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game made the ending almost a foregone conclusion. Outscored 20-5 by the Mountaineers in the first quarter, South Whidbey seemed to be on the verge of their worst loss of the year.But the Falcons came back in the second quarter. Led by Tim Gabelein’s team-high 13 point scoring performance, the South Whidbey broke Mount Baker’s defensive pressure and put up 21 points in the quarter. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers kept pace, scoring 23 of their own points.After the halftime break, scoring was meager for both teams. The Falcons managed just seven points in the third quarter, while Mount Baker scored only 10. The final period was almost a carbon copy of the first as the Falcon shooting percentage dropped off to 27 percent for the game in the 21-5 quarter.Falcon coach Andy Davis said his players had trouble adjusting to Mount Baker’s impressive transition defense, and was only comfortable with the ball for a small portion of the game. He pointed out that the Falcons had some good defensive minutes of their own in the third quarter. George Spivakov and Brian Gabelein contributed heavily to the defense, pulling down 14 rebounds between them. The Falcons play two games on the road later this week. On Friday they match up against Nooksack Valley, then face Lynden Christian on Saturday. “