Oak Harbor was nearly flawless through the entire second half of its game Tuesday.

It was one turnover — the Wildcats’ only miscue of the fourth quarter — that may have cost them a 49-48 non-league loss to Kamiak.

Trailing the Knights 48-46 with 20 seconds remaining and with possession of the ball, Oak Harbor had a chance to either tie or take the lead.

With the clock running down, senior guard Chris Hughes drove to the baseline. While under the hoop, he tried to make a pass back out to an open shooter. It was ruled, however, that Hughes stepped on the baseline with 8 seconds left.

“It looked like he got pushed,” OHHS coach Bryan Schulle said.

Immediately fouled on the inbound, Kamiak’s Rahiti Marere hit 1-of-2 free throws, leaving the door open for OHHS with 6.8 seconds on the clock.

After a timeout, junior Marshall Lobbestael threw a perfect pass from the OHHS baseline to Bryce Schulle just over mid-court. Under duress, the sophomore took a few dribbles and pulled up from 23-feet away. His shot nicked the front end of the iron and fell right into the hands of junior Dallas Heidt, who put in a layup just before the buzzer sounded. Unfortunately for Oak Harbor Heidt’s last-second bucket was too little, too late.

Asked if it was the play he drew up, coach Schulle said it didn’t work as planned.

“It was the right choice at that time,” he said of the shot. “We tried to run the old Valparaiso play where we would hit (Bryce) Schulle down the sideline and then hit Hughes in the middle for a three-pointer.”

With Hughes covered on the play, coach Schulle was pleased at the look the Wildcats got.

“Lobbestael whipped that, that was a great pass and a great catch and you know I’m happy with my sophomore player who looked to shoot the ball,” the coach said.

Tuesday’s game was a back-and-forth contest all of the way through. From the end of the first through early in the third quarter there were eight lead changes and two ties.

From the 7:35 mark of the third, however, the Knights never gave the lead back. Kamiak, which was up by no more than four the remainder of the game, allowed OHHS to pull within one point on six more occasions, but never broke.

A large part of the Wildcats being able to hang around was the aggressiveness of their defense. They forced the Knights into 18 turnovers, 11 of which came in the second half. Oak Harbor only had nine for the game.

“We changed up our press to be a little more aggressive,” coach Schulle said. “We had the guards pressure the ball a little bit more — we probably should have done that earlier.”

Sophomore Rodrick Rumble also had impressive game, scoring a varsity career high of 16. He was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line and had two three-point plays.

“Rodrick played very hard,” Schulle said. “He was all over the place defensively — he just gave us a great effort.”

Heidt added 15 points for OHHS, while the 6-foot-6 Marere led Kamiak with 13 points.

OHHS fell to 1-7 overall with the loss. The Wildcats are 1-3 in the Western Conference North and will play their next game at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 6 on the road against Arlington (2-4).

Kamiak 12 15 11 11 — 49

Oak Harbor 13 13 8 14 — 48

Scoring: Oak Harbor-Rumble 16, Heidt 15, Leach 6, Lobbestael 5, Schulle 4, Hughes 2. Kamiak-Marere 13, Tarver 12, Bullock 7, Iddins 4, Swarthout 4, Perry 3, Greenlee 2, Martinez 2, Stormo 2.