Heading into the fourth quarter, the Douglas girls' basketball team was in perfect position to push ahead for a win Tuesday night.
They'd had a solid practice the day before. They've been making a living off of playing close games. And, they were tied with the Damonte Ranch Mustangs 25-25.
After a 7-2 run to start the fourth, it appeared the Tigers could be on their way to claiming their first Sierra League win of the year.
Then the well went dry offensively, and the Mustangs capitalized with an 11-0 run over the four and a half minutes to push ahead for a 44-36 win in Reno.
"I hate to sound like a broken record, but for us this year it's going to keep coming back to consistency," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "We were really well-prepared for them. We had a great practice yesterday, the girls worked reallly hard and we'd gotten a great scouting report put together on them.
"We just didn't execute defensively down the stretch. We stopped attacking offensively, and in a tight game, you can't do that. We tend to overthink things as a group instead of just reacting. That's on our whole offense."
Damonte also limited Douglas' perimeter offense throughout the game, which closed things down inside for the Tiger post players.
"We didn't do a good job on the outside," Christen said. "Until we start doing that, teams are going to keep zoning us. We have to knock down those shots outside to open things up inside. Right now, that's not happening."
Even so, Douglas forward Ne'Jae Jackson still led all scorers with 15 points and forward Bri Burnside turned in six.
Guards Katie Dry and Jackie Harper had five and four respectively, while Alex Laing had three, Natalie Freitas had two and Ebony Cleveland had one.
Douglas trailed 18-15 after the first half, but got a nice start to the second with a 7-0 run highlighted by a basket and a pair of free throws from Burnside.
The 22-18 lead didn't last, though, as Damonte went on a 6-0 run on its own to take a 25-23 lead before Burnside tied the game back up with seven seconds left in the third.
The Tigers dropped to 0-2 in Sierra League play with the loss, but will host Wooster Friday night at 5:15 p.m.
