Despite a strong defensive game and a late fourth quarter offensive resurgence, the Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School girls basketball team lost to Norfolk County Agricultural High School.

The game was played Thursday, Jan. 16 at Old Colony and Head Coach Craig Lincoln said that despite the loss, his team played a "complete game."

"I thought we played great tonight minus the turnovers," said Lincoln. "One of the biggest things we've been trying to work on is reducing our number of turnovers on offense but our defensive effort was phenomenal."

Despite swiping several steals in the first half, the offense struggled to find its groove and the Cougars found themselves down by 12 points at halftime.

The second half is when the Cougars hit a hot streak on offense, nearly doubling the amount of points they scored in the first half.

The team put together a strong fourth quarter comeback, hitting many clutch shots as time dwindled down, but they were unable to catch Norfolk and lost 33 to 41.

"We cleaned up the passes on offense," said Lincoln. "We tried to make the extra pass and find the open shooter instead of trying to force a shot."

Lincoln said his young team came into the season "looking to grow" and while progress has been made, they still have room for improvement.

"On the defensive side of the ball we have grown a lot," said Lincoln. "The offense has taken a little bit longer but it's coming along as well."

He added the team can learn a lot from the loss to help them grow.

"We learned to not quit and to keep our heads up," he said. "Even though we were down 12 at halftime, it's important to keep fighting and fighting and give yourself a chance at the end of the game."

The Cougars travel to Bourne to play against Upper Cape Regional Vocational Technical High School Monday, Jan. 20 for their next game.