The North Surry girl’s pulled off a comeback win over former conference rival Starmount Tuesday after clawing their way back to force overtime.

A relatively close game throughout, North entered the fourth quarter down 41-36.

The basketball looked more like a pinball as both teams fought for control and possession changed often.

A 3-pointer by North’s Anna Puckett with 3:30 remaining pulled the score to 46-43, Starmount, and when North’s Courtney Campbell finally connected on the team’s third attempt at a putback the Greyhounds pulled to within two at 47-45 Starmount.

North’s Kara Hodges then pulled down another offensive board and connected on the putback to tie the game at 47-47 one minute later.

After a steal on Starmount’s next possession, North’s Morgan Midkiff missed a transition jumper and two Greyhounds went after the ball, but collided and turned it back over to the Rams with a minute left to play.

Midkiff quickly made up for the missed opportunity by drawing a charge in the lane on the Rams ensuing possession, but then promptly lost the ball back to Starmount who called time-out with 15 seconds remaining.

Starmount faltered on its possession and North had a final shot at finishing off the Rams in regulation but could not connect.

In overtime, Starmount struck first to pull ahead 49-47, but Midkiff quickly buried a 3-pointer from two-steps behind the arc on a set North Surry play to give the Greyhounds their first lead of the game at 50-49 lead with 1:13 left.

Starmount responded to regain the lead but Midkiff found Campbell inside on North’s ensuing possession on the same play which produced the sophomore’s 3-point shot to give the Greyhounds a 52-51 lead with 34 seconds remaining.

Starmount couldn’t get a good shot on its next possession as Campbell pulled down the rebound and fired down court to a streaking Nicole Rumplasch who iced the game for the Greyhounds at 54-51.

Starmount’s Kelli Bonner had a game-high 24-points in the loss, and despite her strong performance, the Greyhounds managed to find themselves in a position to win late in the game.

After shutting down East Surry Tuesday, North Surry coach Shane Slate said poor defense forced his team in the position of having to come from behind to win, adding that he felt it was a quintet of reserves who gave the Greyhounds some much needed punch.

“As good as we played defense last night, we stood around way too much, we allowed penetration, we allowed flashes and we didn’t play screen and roll like we talked about before the game,” Slate said. “We just had a lot of breakdowns and we literally didn’t get past that until about five minutes to go in the third quarter when Lily and Adrian and Bunker and Katie and Christina came off the bench and gave us a spark. They had scored eight points up until then and they didn’t get but three more on that bunch and that gave us enough life to scratch and get back in it.”

Midkiff led North with 16 points, followed by Nicole Rumplasch with 13. Courtney Campbell finished with eight points, eight rebounds and four assists.

In his team’s first back-to-back games of the season, Slate said he didn’t see the Greyhounds have problems with their legs, but he did think his squad lacked intensity at some key points in the game.

“I don’t think it was physical fatigue,” Slate said. “I don’t know if we are satisfied, distracted, we’re just not playing with that sense of urgency in stretches of the game and tonight it took us two-and-half quarters to get there and that shouldn’t be a problem with the experience we have in the group.”

North Surry 54, Starmount 51

Starmount — 17 12 12 6 4 — 51

North Surry — 13 9 12 11 7 — 54

Starmount —  Kelli Bonner 24, Baldwin 6, Blackburn 6, Walters 6, Gough 5, Barnes 2, Craft 2

North Surry — Morgan Midkiff 16, Nicole Rumplasch 13, Campbell 8, K. Rumplasch 7, Smith 3, Puckett 3, Hodges 2, Bunker 2