Washington, playing its second game in as many days, had to overcome an aggressive Northside defense in a 42-28 win on Wednesday. The Lady Pack snapped a two-game losing streak and leveled its record at 3-3.

When shots weren’t falling, Washington leaned on Daria Jones to produce additional opportunities with offensive rebounds. The Lady Panthers were able to close the gap to 29-23 early in the fourth quarter. Jones hauled in a rebound and put it back up, and Destiny Cobb followed with a 3-pointer that made it 34-26.

“I don’t think we had our legs after (Tuesday’s) game,” Washington coach Ralph Biggs said. “I think we let up a little bit, and (Northside) played good defense on top of that. On the other side, we played pretty good defense and we came out with a win, which is always good.”

The Lady Pack defense did its best to limit Northside’s athletes from getting easy buckets. Even when the Lady Panthers did get in position, they struggled to finish. They missed an open layup and couldn’t connect on a 2-on-none fastbreak during the last 30 seconds of the game.

The game was already out of reach, but it provided a microcosm of all the chances that went by the wayside.

Brooklyn Hudnell’s free throw tied the game at 14 apiece with 5:46 left in the second quarter. Washington then responded with nine unanswered points to reclaim a lead it would never lose. Jones put in a pair of layups thanks to good ball movement. Cierra Wiggins knocked down a triple. Cobb capped off the surge when Hailey Respass set her up for an easy bucket.

Northside didn’t trail by more than 10 until about midway through the fourth quarter. Coach Michelle Leathers took pride in the fight the Lady Panthers displayed in their season opener.

“This is our first game and this was their sixth. I saw some good things,” she said. “It’s just us getting in a groove in the first game. I’ve still got a young team. … There were a lot of positives. We were able to break the press. We practiced real hard on that.”

Jones led Washington with 10 points. Ke’Shayla Arthur scored seven for Northside. Hudnell added five points, which all came from the charity stripe. The two teams will complete their home-and-home series at Northside on Friday.