It went from bad to worse on the offensive end for the Niles girls basketball team Tuesday in its Brandywine Holiday Tournament game against New Buffalo.

The Vikings went without a field goal (0-of-10) in the fourth quarter and fell to New Buffalo, 39-34, in the first game at the tournament.

Niles, which led 30-26 with 7:20 left in the game, also shot only 50 percent (5-of-10) from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

For the game, the Vikings shot 25 percent (11-of-43) from the field, 42 percent (8-of-19) from the free throw line and turned the ball over 21 times.

“It was very frustrating to watch,” said Niles coach Pat Touhey, whose team fell to 2-5. “We spent all week preparing for this game with our offense because we’ve struggled all year finding points. We really tried hard to try to get some sync and some rhythm with our offense. The kids just aren’t executing.”

Niles stayed in the game because New Buffalo was almost as inefficient on offense. The Bison, who improved to 7-0, shot only 32 percent (14-of-44) from the field, 50 percent (10-of-20) from the free throw line and turned the ball over 18 times. New Buffalo totaled only one field goal in the third quarter and that came after the Bison missed their first 11 shots in the quarter.

New Buffalo then regrouped and saved its best shooting quarter for the fourth when the Bison went 5-for-10. Lena Madison scored seven of her 22 points in the final quarter. Five straight points from Madison gave New Buffalo a 31-30 lead with 3:45 left in the game.

After Niles’ Taylor Brandstatter hit 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game at 31 with 3:25 left in the game, Molly Griffin scored on a drive in the paint to give New Buffalo the lead for good at 33-31 with 3:11 left in the game.

Jade Madison’s steal and basket gave the Bison a 39-33 advantage with 1:48 remaining.

“The defensive end of it for us was huge,” said New Buffalo coach Candy VanBuskirk. “No. 24 (Maureen Craig) is who (Niles) wants to run its offense through and we knew if we could stay with her and slow here down we would be in good shape. She’s a nice ball player and a great shooter.”

Craig finished with 15 points with nine coming in the first half. Craig’s offense helped Niles take a 21-20 halftime lead. There were four ties and six lead changes in the first half.

The Vikings took their biggest lead of the game at 29-24 after getting 1-of-2 free throws from Brandstatter with :39 left in the third quarter. But the Vikings were unable to keep that lead.

“What this game was about tonight is we were not ready to play,” Touhey said. “We had very heavy legs. It’s hard to execute anything when you’re mentally not prepared to play a basketball game. I told the kids (after the game) that you can’t really X and O too much if you’re not ready to play a basketball game and you’re mentally so tired because that’s what we were. Three minutes into the game we were sucking wind.

“But as terrible as we played we still had an opportunity to actually win the basketball game.”

NEW BUFFALO 39

Breanna Workman 0 0-2 0, Lena Madison 7 7-9 22, Jade Madison 3 0-3 6, Abbey Dixon 1 0-0 2, Molly Griffin 1 2-4 4, Zoe Lauricella 1 0-0 2, Amy Golebiewski 0 1-2 1, Jasmine Palenske 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 14 10-20 39

NILES 34

Maureen Craig 4 4-10 15, Eva Nemeth 0 0-0 0, Michelle Briand 3 0-0 6, Kylee Myer 0 0-0 0, Taylor Brandstatter 1 2-7 4, Sarah Cramer 1 0-0 2, Sarah Smith 0 0-0 0, Jacquelyn Grooms 0 0-0 0, Alexis Arnold 2 2-2 7, Anna Sikkink 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11 8-19 34

New Buffalo 11 20 26 39

Niles 9 21 29 34

3-point goals: New Buffalo 1 (L. Madison), Niles 4 (Craig 3, Arnold). Total fouls (fouled out): New Buffalo 14 (none), Niles 18 (none). Shooting: New Buffalo 14-of-44 for 32-percent, Niles 11-of-43 for 25-percent. Rebounding: New Buffalo 34 (L. Madison 10), Niles 23 (Briand and Brandstatter 5 each). Turnovers: New Buffalo 18, Niles 21. Varsity records: New Buffalo 7-0, Niles 2-5