The Surry Runnin’ Patriot girls finally found themselves up against a team who had their number, losing their first game of the season Monday to Carlisle (Va.) 53-40.

Early foul trouble and uncharacteristically horrendous second quarter shooting sealed the Runnin’ Pats fate against a team who plays a strong schedule in Virginia.

Down 16-12 at the end of the first quarter, Surry was just 1-of-18 from the floor in the second, allowing Carlisle to open up a 10-point half-time lead and take control of the game.

“You can’t win when you miss 17 out of 18 shots,” coach John Peters said. “That’s not being critical of the ladies because part of that was Carlisle’s defense making our shots harder and part of it is that basketball is a funny game and the same shots we were hitting last week weren’t falling tonight, at least not in that quarter. That really hurt us.”

Besides the cold shooting second quarter, the Runnin’ Pats were also brutalized on the boards, specifically on the offensive end. Peters said Carlisle was a very physical team and his team was not able to counter balance that physicality with its own.

Peters said he thought his team may have backed off a little because of their opponent but that he was certain the Runnin’ Pats should have been able to stay close with Carlisle.

“I think we played tentative because of their reputation,” he said. “That’s my fault as a coach. I don’t know if we’ve ever played them before, they are a good team, they’ve won a lot of state titles in Virginia and I think we went in a little tentative. In the first quarter we played even with them and at that point we realized we could play with this team and could beat them, but in that second quarter we just went cold.”

Carlisle’s Janika Hunt led all scorers with 18 points, while Surry’s Hannah Tompkins and Rebekah Sikes each posted double-doubles. Tompkins finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Sikes added 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“A loss is a loss and it’s never fun to lose, but at the start of our season our goals were to win the region, win the state and then win the East coast tournament,” Peters said. “Those are still our goals, we didn’t do anything tonight to hurt that and playing this team tonight there are things we can learn and specific areas we can work on that were exposed. This game was a good learning experience and a good stepping stone toward our season goals.”

Surry drops to 8-1 and will take on Caldwell next Tuesday at home.

Carlisle (VA) 53,

Surry 40

Carlisle — 16 10 14 13 — 53

Surry — 12 4 12 12 — 40

CARLISLE — Hill 7, Janika Hunt 18, Frazier 3, Shatera Hairston 14, Holden 8, Russell 3

SURRY — Hannah Tompkins 12, Hamilton 5, Sikes 11, Santucci 4, Peters 5, Phillips 3