POULSBO — The North Kitsap girls basketball team played a focused and determined game for three quarters against Gig Harbor Wednesday night. The problem, of course, is that basketball games last four.

North was in control with about six minutes to go in the fourth quarter when Gig Harbor clamped down its mistakes and North started making a few — the Vikes never recovered.

“In retrospect you say, ‘Hey we did play well and we had them on the ropes,’” said NK Coach Dan Weedin. “We just made some fundamental mistakes. You have to give Gig Harbor credit because they played well.”

Katie Swanlund and Heather Case scored 10 points each for the Vikings, including two 3-pointers from the pair and Jenna Reed also added 8 points and six rebounds in the losing effort.

Coming out of the gates, the Vikings were in control, making touch passes, getting good looks at the hoop and seeming to score at will. A good full-court press also stunned the Tides.

“We played a very good first half and, really, it was a carryover from the Wilson game,” Weedin said.

Brenda Stice opened the game with a 3-point play as the Vikes started with an 11-1 run in the first three minutes of play. The Vikings led 18-12 at the end of the first quarter.

“They started out by killing us early,” Gig Harbor Coach Bob Boback said. “This is a very good team. Dan (Weedin) is doing a great job.”

In the second, though North had a few lapses, the Lady Vikes continued to press and went into the locker room with a 32-26 lead.

The third period was rocky on both sides, but some key 3 pointers — mainly by Case and Swanlund — kept the Vikings ahead.

But within the first three minutes of the fourth, Gig Harbor stormed back and North began to make some sloppy passes for turnovers. When the Tides scored to go up 45-44 to secure the team’s first lead of the game, North was never able to bring it back.

“We made too many turnovers in the fourth and got out of the flow of our offense,” Weedin said. “We need to work on taking care of the basketball … and to work on closing out (games) and working hard to get rebounds.”

Gig Harbor, playing in its third game of the season, was feeling a little rusty, said Tides coach Bob Boback.

“One key was that we finally started playing basketball,” he said. “We’ve been playing really tight. We made a couple of adjustments and put a little more pressure on the ball.”