For three of the four quarters Tuesday at the Bird Cage, Washington Catholic outscored Northeast Dubois in a Blue Chip Conference girls basketball game.

But it was the eight minutes of the third quarter which spelled defeat for the Lady Cardinals.

The Lady Jeeps sped out of the locker room to open the second half and dominated the third quarter in a 45-34 win.

Washington Catholic (1-4, 1-3) played well in the first half, leading 8-4 after one quarter and 18-10 at halftime. But as well as WC played in the first half, that’s how badly the third quarter began for the Lady Cards.

Washington Catholic came up empty on its first 10 possessions of the second half, including six missed field goal attempts and six turnovers. During that span of just over 6:00, Dubois outscored WC 18-0 before Sam Arnold, who led the Cardinals in scoring with 12 points, knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:02 left in the quarter.

Though WC essentially played the Jeeps to a draw from that point on, the damage was done, and the closest the Cardinals came to the lead was 33-27 on a Morgan Buckley rebound basket early in the fourth quarter.

After the game, Washington Catholic coach Jim Mackey looked back to the first half, when his team allowed the Jeeps far too many second chances on offense (seven first half Dubois offensive rebounds) and committed six turnovers. Otherwise, the Cardinals could have had an even bigger lead heading into the locker room.

“Truth be known, we were up eight at halftime, and we should have been up 18. We had opportunity after opportunity to score and we either made a bad pass or forced something,” said Mackey. “Fortunately, Dubois didn’t shoot the ball real well in the first half.

“The second half, we have an eight point lead and we need to come out and take control of the game. But they hit their first shot, we came down and turned the ball over three or four straight times. They came down, got two or three offensive put backs,” said Mackey. “Now, instead of being up whatever we should have been up, it’s a one point game. Dubois came out in the second half and wanted to play, and we didn’t.”

Rachel Wichman had nine points for WC, followed by Buckley with eight. Megan Worland and Rachel Wichman each added two points, and Jordan Crew contributed a free throw for one point. Kendra Heeke topped Dubois with 14 points, followed by Alyssa Elliott with 10.

Dubois claimed the JV game 40-26. Emily Schnarr topped WC with 10 points, followed by Logan Crew with eight and Katie Sellers with six.