Plagued by tough defense and foul trouble, the lady Red Knights basketball team lost a hard fought battle with conference rival Fridley, 49-46

The game started as usual for the Red Knights, building up a steady lead to end the half with a 26-15 lead.

Throughout the season, the Red Knights have coasted through many games with this sort of start, but Fridley would not die without a fight. “We were on track for an easy win, but in the second half it just fell apart,” said junior captain Itisha Alexander.

The Tigers were a whole new team in the second half, with a 6-0 run in the first three and a half minutes. “They came out firing and we didn’t have the energy to respond,” said junior captain Laura Kosch. “There was zero intensity, and we started to be sloppy with the ball.”

In the final few minutes, Fridley put its last vestiges of energy into forcing three key turnovers from the Red Knights. With a tie game going into the final 36 seconds, BSM had a chance to seal a victory, but missed free throws cost them dearly. “We basically gave them the win in the last minute or so,” said Kosch.

One crucial factor of the loss was the absence of freshman Khadijah Shumpert, who suffered a concussion a game earlier versus Totino-Grace. “We could have really used Khadijah. We needed a post to grab some serious boards,” said Alexander.