North Pitt came into Washington as the reigning 2-A state champion, but the Lady Pack knew it could hang. This is largely the same group that took the eventual champs down to the wire in last year’s 2-A Eastern Plains Conference tournament.

Washington gave the Lady Panthers all they could handle again, but came up short in a 54-50 loss. It sets the Lady Pack further back in the league, but coach Ralph Biggs still finds plenty of silver linings.

“We’re always looking for the win, but we take a ton of positives,” he said. “The girls played very well. If I had to tell you something bad, I couldn’t tell you something bad off my head. I would have to think, so they played very well. … They were right there to win the game. The bounces didn’t go our way. It’s a tough conference, a tough season, and we’re still going to keep fighting.”

Washington showed plenty of fight throughout Tuesday’s game. Like she’s been known to do recently, Daria Jones caught the opponent off guard when she hoisted up a 3-pointer from the corner. Kizoria Redmond knocked one down from behind the arc, too, to help her team spread the floor a bit.

“We’ve got a lot of girls that like to shoot. If we hit some 3s, that can open up the game for us,” Biggs said. “Tonight we hit some and that opened some driving lanes for us. Whenever we start out hitting jump shots, that’s always good.”

Redmond’s 3 gave Washington a 12-11 lead, but North Pitt closed the opening period with five unanswered points to gain a 16-12 advantage.

Tierra Wiggins made Washington’s first three baskets of the second. The Lady Pack tied the game at 20 apiece with 2:20 left in the half when she hit back-to-back shots from long range.

North Pitt forced turnovers and worked on the offensive glass to take a 28-23 lead into the halftime intermission.

Nazayah Parker’s 2-for-2 trip at the charity stripe knotted things at 31-31 with 3:50 left in the third, but that was the last time Washington would get close to taking a lead. The Lady Pack drew within a point in the fourth, but the Lady Panthers used an 8-0 surge to pull away.

Washington has had a strong season, but hasn’t performed as well in the league as it would have expected. All three of its conference losses have been by two or fewer possessions.

“We feel good about the overall season,” Biggs said. “Yeah, we hate losing the close games. All in all, we feel good about the season and still have our goals.”

The Lady Pack could regain some ground in the standings. A visit from Farmville Central marks the beginning of a home stretch that features a rematch with North Pitt and another meeting with top-ranked Southwest Edgecombe.