The final score was almost as much of a surprise to South Kitsap boys basketball coach John Callaghan as his team’s sloppy ball-handling.

He didn’t expect it to be within 20 points.

After all, the Wolves turned the ball over a season-high 29 times Wednesday night en route to a 55-39 Narrows League Bridge Division loss against Foss. South lost the ball over eight times in its first nine possessions.

“We were playing at their tempo,” South guard Isaiah Davis said. “We need to be more under control.”

Callaghan’s perspective was a little different.

“It wasn’t like they were forcing our turnovers,” he said. “We were just making terrible decisions.”

Despite 15 first-half turnovers, the Wolves trailed 21-14 at halftime. That’s because the Falcons (3-0 overall, 2-0 league) had 10 turnovers and converted just 8 of 30 shots during the opening half.

Foss led by as many as 10 points in the first half but couldn’t maintain a double-digit lead until 6-foot-3 forward DeAndre Sutton hit a 3-pointer to give the Falcons a 28-17 advantage with 5:59 minutes left in the third quarter. Sutton converted 5 of 10 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 17 points.

South (3-1, 1-1) never cut the deficit to less than 15 points in the fourth period.

Callaghan felt his team wasn’t aggressive enough offensively. Mike Longmire, who led the team with 15 points, and Leon La Deaux both finished three-point plays with after being fouled, but the Wolves only attempted eight shots from the line.

“The bottom line is we were tentative the whole game,” Callaghan said. “We weren’t making plays. We were reacting to them.”

While Callaghan would have liked his team to shoot more free throws, he was happy with the result. After two games, the Wolves had converted just 45.6 percent of their free throws. They made 7 of 8 attempts against Foss.

The Wolves couldn’t match that from the field, though. They shot 38 percent from the field, while the Falcons finished at 43 percent. In addition to six 3-pointers compared with none for South, Foss also had 14 more field-goal attempts mostly because of the turnover margin. The Falcons had 17 turnovers.

“We’re learning and they’re a good team,” Callaghan said. “We need to play against that caliber of team if we’re going to get better. And that game is going to make us better for sure.”

Foss 55, at South Kitsap 39

Foss 13 8 21 13 — 55

South Kitsap 4 10 10 15 — 39

Foss — Xavier Gibson 6, Jonathan Payne 7, Nate Walker 8, Jamal Byrd 0, Derris Dumas 0, Julian Cruell 0, Allen Brown 0, Steven Canty 0, Damari Lewis 2, Jeremy McClain 6, LuQuam Thompson 9, DeAndre Sutton 17.

South Kitsap — Isaiah Davis 2, Ivan Rybachuk 2, Austin Siegel 3, Tre Haslom 3, Joey Osinski 6, Leon La Deaux 6, Brannon Bell 0, Mike Longmire 15, Ricky King 2.