The Southside Lady Panthers kept it close at the half, but the game got away from them in the third quarter, as they fell 46-35 to the Opp Lady Bobcats at home on Tuesday in area play.

Jason Bothwell, head girls basketball coach of Southside (7-10, 1-2), said the Lady Bobcats just wanted it more and came ready to play.

“They just played with heart. They came into the gym ready to win a ball game,” Bothwell said. “My hat is off to the Opp Lady Bobcats. They just did everything they needed to do to win and they weren’t intimidated by anything they heard about us or seen about us. They were just ready to play and that was the bottom line in the end.”

The Lady Panthers only trailed 20-14 at the break, as Southside’s Tanisha Blevins opened the second half with a basket that narrowed the deficit down to 20-16.

But the Lady Bobcats went on an 8-0 run in the middle of a quarter where they outscored the Lady Panthers 11-3 to take a 33-17 lead into the fourth.

Opp opened the final quarter with the momentum, as Saquaya Lane scored a pair of baskets in the paint and Quanisha Stoudemire hit a shot that extended the lead to 39-17 with 4:29 left to play before Southside’s Chelsea Arnold hit a 3-pointer to make it 39-20.

The Lady Panthers went on a 13-2 run in the final two minutes of the game to cut the lead to 45-35, but their comeback attempt ran out of time.

Arnold led the Lady Panthers with 12 points, while Ki’Onna Likely had 11 points for Southside.

Stoudemire had 18 points for Opp, while Laiken Free added 10 points for the Lady Bobcats.

Southside will take the floor again Friday at Keith with games starting at 5:30 p.m.