The Washington Lady Cardinals were outshoot and out-sized by North Knox on Monday night, but still found a way to rally back for a close 46-38 loss.

The Cardinals (0-2) went on a 20-6 run in the final nine minutes of the game, to move from 40-18 to the 46-38 final.

“I though from halfway through the third quarter, we got on the girls to try to run the offense without so much dribbling and having better floor spacing,” said WC coach Jim Mackey. “We started to get the ball to who needed to be shooting it and Morgan Buckley did a nice job on the inside. We hit some big 3s and got some real leadership from Sam Arnold. We can put her anywhere on the floor.”

The Cardinals faced a fierce press early on, but only trailed 9-7, after early baskets from Arnold and Rachel Wichman.

“We did a nice job of breaking the press at first,” added Mackey. “We had some nice open shots and it is unfortunate that we didn’t hit them.

However, turnovers and hot shooting from the Lady Warriors led to a 24-11 lead. Ashlee Primus hit back-to-back treys and added a bucket to lead the NK charge. During the second quarter WC made nine turnovers and the lead ballooned to 29-16. Jordy Crew added two buckets to help stem the NK run.

“There was about a four-minute stretch where we got out of what we wanted to do. They were able to build a 13-14 point lead,” said Mackey.

The Lady Warriors built their biggest margin of the game in the third. The Warriors showed patience and pounded the ball into Jess Wood, along with getting Primus’ fourth trey of the night. She hit four of the team’s five 3-pointers. Arnold had four of the team’s seven points in the third.

However, the final eight minutes, the Cardinals made a run. As NK moved into a slow-down defense, WC got a pair of field goals from Arnold, who tied Primus as the game’s top scorer with 17 points. Megan Worland also added her second trey of the night and WC was 4-7 from the line to clip 14 points off the Warrior lead, but WC still fell, short. Worland was second on the scoring sheet with nine, while Crew had four, Wichman and Morgan Buckley had three each and Katie Sellers added two.

“I thought we played really well in the fourth quarter,” said Mackey. “I was a lot happier with the effort tonight than I was during the loss to North Daviess the other night. I though we had some real effort out there. I thought they came out and really wanted to play and that is what it is all about.”

The WC JV also lost, 24-18. Logan Crew lead with nine points, Emily Schnarr had four, Deven Hunter added three and Sellers had two.