Ouch; they were sooooooo close.

But fighting hard and fighting smart are two separate disciplines, as the South Whidbey girls basketball team showed Tuesday in their 53-52 overtime loss to Cedarcrest, a game the Falcons led until the third quarter.

“We gave it to them,” said Falcon coach Henry Pope.

“Between turnovers, bad shot selection and lousy use of the clock, we did it to ourselves,” he said.

Lindsey Newman started scoring on a fierce run to the net seconds into the first quarter for the Falcons. The Red Wolf girls were sluggish and, so it seemed, in awe of Newman’s growing reputation as a single-handed game winner; she is now three points short of 400 for the season.

But she doesn’t do it by herself — the starting varsity of Ashlinn Prosch, Reilly O’Sullivan, Chantal LaChaussee and Cayla Calderwood played tough on the court and overwhelmed Cedarcrest on defense.

This was 5-foot-11 Calderwood’s first game after recovering from a back injury. Her height gives the team an extra dimension, but she was rusty on shots, though scary on defense.

The girls were ahead 14-6 after the first quarter.

The second quarter seemed a repeat, but slowly the smaller, speedy Red Wolves began hitting the net from the inside, something of a Cedarcrest trademark.

Though the Falcons led 24-19 at the half, the fact they were outscored by three points cast a shadow over those hoping for a simple victory.

The Cedarcrest girls showed their true colors in the third, dodging and weaving through traffic as they began to pull ahead.

Despite O’Sullivan’s defensive tactics, Red Wolf Sara Houser began hitting her shots, then tied the game 29-29 on free throws with 2:48 left, finally taking it over the top 31-33 as the third quarter drew to a close.

The Falcons began to take desperate chances, attempting questionable shots and trying to force the play.

Sometimes it worked. O’Sullivan picked up a three-pointer to start the fourth quarter while others dove into their bag of big plays — Newman rebounded, bounce-passed to Alannah Alber, then a dish to Calderwood for a soft touch and the score. Seconds later, Prosch threw a stolen ball to Newman who swiveled left and passed to Calderwood for two more.

But Cedarcrest responded point-for-point until, at the buzzer, the score was even at 46.

Each team now had four minutes to wrap it up in overtime.

The girls on both sides were getting tired even as the stakes, and the intensity, ramped up.

But the Falcons kept making careless moves; poorly-aimed passes, rushing the play or simply failing to connect on free throws.

The Falcon strategy was clear: Establish a prevent defense deep, transition fast and get the ball to Newman. It worked until Newman began forcing shots that went awry, getting fouled and missing the free throws.

Despite a final second effort from Newman, her final score failed the cut and the Red Wolves stood alone, 53-52.

“We need to be closer as a team when we get into these situations,” O’Sullivan said. “Clearly, we were trying to rush things and didn’t use the clock wisely. I honestly felt we’d pull it out.”

Newman said the tactic was to get the Red Wolves to shoot outside, not their strong suit.

“It worked for awhile,” Newman said. “They came out strong in the third and began to make their shots; at the end, they performed better under pressure than we did.”

Calderwood felt the team started to get overanxious toward the end of the third quarter.

“And then the band left, maybe we can blame them,” Calderwood joked.

Pope said the missed free throws, at least six in the overtime period, were a disaster. “No way to sugarcoat that. We weren’t smart with the ball in a situation where we had the lead.”

Newman led with 34 points, 16 rebounds and five steals. Calderwood had six plus nine rebounds and Alannah Alber, O’Sullivan and Samantha Pope each contributed three points.

For Cedarcrest, Houser and Brooke Chapman combined for 29.

At 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, the girls welcome Sultan to Erikson Gym.