Johnny Messiha is an Arizona State University student assigned to cover St. Mary's for AZPreps365.

The St. Mary’s girls basketball team turned things around after a slow start but could not overcome a double-digit deficit in their 46-43 home loss to Thunderbird on Thursday night.

Junior forward Gianna Brittain misfired on a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the Knights (6-14, 2-7) that would have sent the game to overtime, after their 6-1 run in the final minute. They trailed by as many as 11 points to the Chiefs (12-12, 4-4) in the second quarter.

“That’s been our season," Knights head coach Patricia Hollerbach said. "We’re pretty much in it in the majority of our games but we pull out the fight too late. We need to learn to start fast and energized from the get-go.”

The Knights’ slow start resulted from a Chiefs full-court press that caught them off-guard. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter and had a difficult time navigating through the press for the rest of the contest.

The Knights managed to shoot an impressive 55%, making 11 of 20 shots in the first half, but their turnovers limited their offensive opportunities.

Chiefs head coach Barry Ringel knew of the Lady Knights' ability to shoot well and determined that a full-court press was the best defensive strategy.

“We thought we needed to pressure as much as possible." Ringel said. "We’ve been struggling a little bit scoring points so we figured we need to up the tempo defensively. Last time we played St. Mary’s, this type of pressure helped and by the fourth quarter we took control.”

The Chiefs took control in the second quarter when they outscored the Knights 17-9 and built an 11-point lead. However, after leading 28-19 at halftime, the Chiefs only scored 18 points in the second half.

Thunderbird's offense relied on sophomore guard Madi Peterson, junior guard Alea Lethridge and junior forward Lexi Bermudez, who combined for 42 of the Chiefs’ 46 points. They were carrying the offense well until St. Mary’s switched to a full-court press. The Knights limited the Chiefs to six points in the third quarter on 2-of-9 shooting.

The Knights' strong defense continued in the fourth quarter when they forced 10 Chiefs turnovers. This allowed them to run the fast break and score some easy baskets, but their half-court offense faltered. They shot 6-for-18 in the fourth quarter and made some crucial turnovers down the stretch.

“A lot of us were under pressure against ourselves,” Knights guard and captain Marlene Moreno said. “We practice on getting pressed, but we still get frantic with ourselves. We made a lot of turnovers on passes that we thought were there but weren’t.”

The same went for The Chiefs, who thought they had the game sealed with a 45-37 lead and only 51 seconds to go. However, the Knights forced three turnovers on four possessions. Brittain, who led the Knights with 19 points, hit a huge 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to cut the lead to 45-41.

After the Chiefs split a pair of free throws, St. Mary’s scored and got a steal, leaving them with five seconds to tie the game on a 3-pointer. Brittain’s wild attempt came up short, giving Thunderbird a 46-43 win.

While the Knights attempted their fourth-quarter comeback Thunderbird went to the free-throw line 12 times. They hit 8 of 12 free throws, which accounted for over half of their 12 fourth quarter points.

“We couldn’t stay disciplined enough to hang back and keep them off the free throw line, so it’s two free points because they’re a really good free throw shooting team,”  Hollerbach said. “We just have to keep our girls disciplined and block the refs out because the refs were getting to them and myself as well.”

The Chiefs shot 17 of 24 from the free-throw line in the game, but the Knights only made 3 of 7.  That 14-point difference played an important role in the loss as St. Mary’s couldn’t pressure without fouling.

Thunderbird will host Moon Valley (14-10, 4-4) on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Knights will look to bounce back in their last game of conference play when they host Moon Valley on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for their Senior Night.