Two losses during the past week have endangered the chances of the Falcon girls basketball team seeing the post season. It didn’t have to be this way.

Having managed to stay in fifth place in the North Cascades Conference most of the season, the South Whidbey girls may have given away their playoff spot to Granite Falls. In two nights, Feb. 6 and Feb. 7, the Falcons lost two games to the previously seventh-place Tigers, and dropped almost completely out of the playoff picture.

A third loss, which came 68-53 to Mount Baker at Erikson Gymnasium Tuesday night, put the Falcons just back of sixth place Meridian, which also has a 5-9 NCC record.

The heartbreaker of the week was Saturday night’s home loss to Granite Falls. After playing the Tigers to a 23-23 tie by halftime, the South Whidbey girls seemed to put the game on ice in the third quarter, outscoring the Tigers 17-5 to take a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter. But in that quarter, Tiger Casey Jensen loosed a 22-point comeback as she hit eight points from the field and nailed four free throws.

Jensen, who would score 18 points on the night to lead all scorers, ended the game on her own. With just seconds left in the game, she weaved the length of the court with her team down 49-47 to hit a layup and draw a foul. She hit her free throw to give her team the 50-49 victory.

The loss came to the Falcons despite their having had huge advantages. In addition to taking a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter, they hit 19 of 28 free throws, a better rate of success than the 15 of 31 Tigers. Top scorers for South Whidbey were Caitie Newman with 16 and Bronwyn Russell with 14.

Against Mount Baker, the Falcons were behind from the tipoff. The Mountaineers hammered the Falcons early, going up 23-11 in the first quarter. They maintained the advantage until game’s end, allowing the Falcons to outscore them only in the second quarter by a margin of one point.

The Mountaineers had three players in double figures, with Jackie and Sam Phillips hitting 26 combined and Lexi Postlewaite with 11. Scoring leaders for South Whidbey were Marcella Litwiller with 14 and Newman with 13.