POULSBO — In what was a hard-fought physical and defensive first battle, the Kingston Cavalier girls’ basketball team emerged on top of Poulsbo when the dust cleared, winning Wednesday by a count of 36-33.

North Kitsap’s first of two girls’ junior high games saw both teams making plenty of steals and loads of rebounds — but never really establishing a rhythm on the offensive end.

“Defensively, we played an excellent game,” said Poulsbo coach Karla DeVries. “But we weren’t patient and we rushed and didn’t pick our shots well.”

“Our shooting was very poor — we didn’t shoot the ball well,” said Cavs Coach Tony Chisholm. “But we kept coming and played good defense the entire game.”

Two players in the game who did manage to climb atop the defensive contest were Kingston’s Erin Nicol, who scored 8 and Panther Leah Seim-Brown, who exploded for a game-high 16.

The Cavs never really found a way to cover Seim-Brown effectively, changing from a zone defense to man-to-man coverage often. Regardless, Poulsbo’s point-guard and ninth grader found ways to get open. Seim-Brown said she was proud of her team’s defense and that despite the loss, things are looking up for the future.

“We played really hard and made a lot of team steals,” Seim-Brown said. “We made a lot of turnovers but we’re going to get better.”

Nicol was tough on the offensive and defensive ends as well, often going down hard to the floor in battles for the ball.

“(Nicol’s) poise impresses me the most,” Chisholm said. “She has what it takes — that young girl can play.”

“I was just thinking about teamwork,” Nicol said. “Towards the end we started to get the ball to other players and we started to play better.”

Kingston held a 4-point lead with a little over three minutes to go but a 3-point play by Rachel Stice, a steal by Ashley Tobin and lay-up by Seim-Brown knotted the game at 26 apiece.

Both teams had chances to win with under a minute to go. With 17 ticks left, Seim-Brown layed the ball off the glass for a narrow miss. Cavalier Riley Watts also had a chance with eight seconds to go but the ball also rimmed in and out.

In the four minute extra session, the Lady Cavaliers came out firing on offense and scrappy defense to boot. Brenna Lander made two key steals for lay-ups that put Kingston up 30-27 with 1:28 to go.

After two Panthers free-throws by Jordan Jewitt and another Cavs steal and lay-in by Jade Niemeyer, the score was 32-29. Two more defensive stops would add buckets by Kingston’s Watts and Natalie Warford.

With a only about a dozen ticks on the clock, Poulsbo, down 36-30, had to rush to get the ball upcourt. As time ran out, Seim-Brown nailed a three to put the Panthers down by three but the final buzzer sounded before Kingston could inbound the ball.

On Thursday, the Cavaliers again scored a win, beating Bremerton 56-41.

Nicol had 17 points off 5 of 8 shooting the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Watts added 12 points on the day, going 7-of-13 from the field.