PANTEGO — Terra Ceia couldn’t match the offensive output of its 15-point first quarter in a 51-45 loss to local and Tarheel Independent Conference rival Pungo. The Lady Raiders rebounded from a slow start and scored 14 points in the fourth to close out the win.

After playing at a decent pace for three quarters, the final eight minutes were relatively clunky. Plenty of stoppages in play slowed things down, seemingly to the benefit of Pungo. The Lady Raiders got eight of their 14 fourth-quarter points at the free-throw line.

“We’ve kind of been dreading it,” said Pungo coach Melanie Sawyer of playing at Terra Ceia for the first time this season. “You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. It’s always a hard-fought game. I enjoy it, I really do, because of the rivalry. I think Terra Ceia gave it 110 percent. We gave it 110 percent. That’s all you can ask.

“… We’re not a good slow-down team sometimes, and I start panicking more than they panic. They handled it better tonight than they have in the past.”

Meanwhile, the Lady Knights didn’t convert on any of their chances at the charity stripe in the fourth and only made two foul shots in the second half.

“We just didn’t make our free throws. I don’t have an explanation other than we didn’t make them,” Terra Ceia coach Verm Parsons said. “They made their free throws. We didn’t make ours, and it was a big part of the second half.”

Terra Ceia scored the first nine points of the game on baskets from three different players. Catherine Meijer worked in the post for a pair of buckets, Ashley James knocked down a 3-pointer and Lynn Van Staalduinen put back a rebound to fuel a 9-0 run to start the game.

Lauren Kellie Ricks’ free throw at the 3:22 mark of the first gave Pungo its first points. Macy Morgan hit a half-court shot at the buzzer, but the Lady Raiders trailed 15-7 after eight minutes.

Their defense came together in the second quarter. Pungo held its hosts without a point for the first three and a half minutes of the period, and its offense trimmed away at the deficit. Emily Spencer’s effort on a coast-to-coast block marked the defensive highlight of the game.

“We just went straight man-to-man, no more zone,” Sawyer said of Pungo’s defensive adjustments. “They had (James), their shooter, and we needed to keep Catherine off the boards somehow because she absolutely killed us.”

Pungo trailed, 23-19, at halftime. Terra Ceia built a 6-point lead in the third before a 7-0 spurt, capped off by a Rebecca Hodges free throw, gave the Lady Raiders their first lead with 2:07 left in the quarter.

Spencer drained a trey with less then 10 seconds in the third, but Reagan Glass put away a layup with half a second left to make it a 37-35 game going into the fourth.

Pungo got to the line to close out in the fourth, dropping the Lady Knights to 2-2 in league play.