The Atlantic girls’ basketball team lost a nail-biting game to the Red Oak Tigers on Tuesday, Dec. 4. Going into the game, sophomore Haley Rasmussen said “we knew we were the underdogs. There wasn’t anything on the line, we were just going to play our hardest.”

As the game began, Baylee Newell was the first to score a field goal for Atlantic. With seconds left in the first quarter, Alyssa Ginther sank a three-pointer to shorten Red Oak’s lead to three. The Trojans trailed the Tigers 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.  By halftime Red Oak had 34 points, and Atlantic had 20.

As the second half began, so did a Trojan scoring spree, as Atlantic outscored Red Oak in the third quarter 14-7. The score heading into the fourth quarter was 41-35 in favor of the Tigers.

The fourth quarter kicked off with baskets for both sides. However, the Trojans narrowed the gap to just 4 points with 4:37 to go. After a quick timeout, the scoring continued with no change in the lead. After a swift couple of baskets by the Trojans, followed by a deep two-pointer by Rasmussen with 48 seconds left in the game, Red Oak held the lead by three points. Junior Kenzie Waters was sent to the free-throw line and sunk both of her shots to bring the Trojans within one point.

However, a Red Oak player was fouled, and they got their own chance to shoot free throws. With this, the Tigers extended their lead to four points. With the clock running down, this would be the last score of the game. Atlantic dropped a close one to Red Oak–the #3 team in class 3A–54-50. “I knew we had a chance against Red Oak,” sophomore Alyssa Derby said.

Senior Baylee Newell put up 11 points in the contest. Senior Heidi Williams snagged nine rebounds on the night.

Also, the girls’ JV team snagged their third win of the season 48-41.

Atlantic gets another chance at Red Oak on Friday, Jan. 25.