The stage for back-to-back wins was set.

Unfortunately for Oak Harbor, it has to wait another day to end the drought.

The Wildcats fell 83-72 at home to Arlington on Tuesday night, erasing visions of consecutive wins for the first time since Feb. 3, 2004.

“Hopefully we can do it in these last couple of weeks,” OHHS head coach Bryan Schulle said. “We’ll have to do it against two of three playoff teams.”

Oak Harbor, which fell to 2-11 in league and 2-15 overall, put forth a season-high point total, but faltered all game with its defense.

Arlington (5-8, 7-10) scored several easy transition buckets off nine turnovers and hit 6-of-14 three-pointers in the first half for a 39-31 halftime lead.

“They caught us in defensive rotations,” Schulle said. “They had just six (three-pointers) against us last time — they had six at halftime tonight.

Our full-court pressure caused us to be a little bit out of position on the defensive end of the floor.”

Oak Harbor’s first and only lead, 2-0, came one minute into the game on a powerful post move from junior Will Hunter.

From there, the Eagles took over.

Three different players hit three-pointers and Arlington shot 50 percent from the field in the first half.

The Eagles continued their success second half, going on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter.

“We just had less intensity than they did at the start of the third quarter — a lot less,” Schulle said.

Arlington built three leads of 18 points in the third quarter, seemingly putting OHHS out of the game.

The Wildcats didn’t throw in the towel, however.

“They didn’t give up, they certainly made Arlington aware that they were going to try and make it a basketball game,” Schulle said.

Led by sophomore Rodrick Rumble, Oak Harbor chipped away at the Arlington lead getting the deficit down to seven points six times in the final 4:41 of the fourth quarter. Trailing 79-72 with 31 seconds left, OHHS stole the ball in the backcourt and had two opportunities for three-point shots, but missed. Arlington sealed the deal, hitting 7-of-10 free throws in the final minute.

Rumble scored 15 of his team-high 20 points in the second half.

“He played like he is capable of playing,” Schulle said.

Junior James Leach also had a nice game, scoring 16 points, along with four three-pointers.

Arlington was led by the 22 points of senior guard David Griffiths, who had four of the Eagles’ nine three pointers.

Oak Harbor played at Stanwood last night and hosts Mount Vernon at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14 and Marysville-Pilchuck at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 16 for the final two games of the season.

Arlington 19 20 23 21 — 83

Oak Harbor 14 17 18 23 — 72

Scoring: Oak Harbor-Rumble 20, Leach 16, Hughes 10, Hunter 8, Heidt 7, Lobbestael 7, Schulle 4. Arlington-Griffiths 22, Gray 13, Swesey 13, Smith 11, Thompson 11, Devery 5, Boyden 3, Weber 3, Bourasaw 2.