NILES — After a hard-fought second quarter, the Niles girls basketball team could not hang onto its slight lead over Three Rivers going into the second half Tuesday night. 

In the Vikings’ home opener against the Wildcats, Niles led Three Rivers 23-21 after the second quarter. The close game switched gears in the fourth quarter as Niles’ defense failed to stop Three Rivers from sinking several 3-point shots from the corner of the court.

The Wildcats were able to maintain that lead and earned a 54-43 non-conference victory over the Vikings.

“We definitely have some things we learned from this game,” said Niles coach Jessica Johnson. “One of those things is covering that corner in our rotations on defense.”

After a competitive third quarter, the Vikings trailed the Wildcats by just three points.

A Three Rivers scoring spree of three 3-pointers and a 2-point basket, left the Vikings facing a deficit they could not overcome.

“When they went on that run, when the girl kept hitting threes in the corner, it really hurt us,” Johnson said.

She added the team needs to be able to power through adversity during those moments.

The Niles defense also had to fight against Wildcat senior and Grand Valley State University NCAA Division II commit Hadley Miller. Standing at 5-foot-9, Miller tested the Vikings defensively by making runs all over the court and shooting comfortably from the 3-point line. Niles’ game plan was to deny her the ball, but that did not pan out Johnson said.

“It’s hard to stop someone that has that kind of motor,” Johnson said. “She is a tough player. I think we could have done better.”

Despite being down 17 points in the fourth quarter, Niles continued to fight.

Senior point guard Alycia Patterson added a basket, while sophomore Amara Palmer chipped in with four points, and Reese Davies finishing with two points, the Vikings were able to shorten the Wildcats’ lead to nine points in the closing moments.

Patterson took control of Niles’ offense and had several big steals off of Hadley throughout the game.

“Alycia Patterson always plays a solid game,” Johnson said. “She is always hard on herself. If I was to ask her, she would think she didn’t do well but she is our go-to person on the floor.”

Under the net, Davies led the team in offensive rebounds.

As the game entered the final quarter, Johnson said her team grew tired and their ball movement started to reflect it.

Patterson spent a majority of the night on the court with few breaks, as the team’s backup point guard, her sister Kamryn Patterson, was unable to play.

Moving forward, Johnson plans to focus on the bigger picture, mainly working on the defense boxing out and scoring off those second and third shots. Blocking corner 3-point shots will also be an area of focus.

“I was really trying to have the girls focus on their boxing out, unfortunately, we fell short there,” Johnson said.

Niles will take the court again on Friday night at Mattawan with a tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m.