EBEN JUNCTION — The Superior Central girls tried their best to control the pace in a non-conference basketball game here Monday night.

It was the Felch North Dickinson Nordics who picked it up in the second half, however, as they handed the Cougars a 42-19 loss.

The shorthanded Cougars, with just six available players, elected to run a delay offense which helped keep them in the game into the third quarter.

Senior Addie Frusti drained a 20-foot jump shot slightly more than 1½ minutes into the third, bringing the Cougars within 13-7.

The Cougars, however, simply couldn’t buy a bucket through much of the contest and the Nordics eventually took advantage of that.

North Dickinson extended its lead to 18-7 on a 20-foot jumper by Aspen Anderson at 4:58, forcing the Cougars to use a time-out.

A layup by freshman Aubri Kroupa shaved their deficit to 18-9.

The Nordics answered with a 13-0 run, extending their lead to 31-9 on an 18-foot jumper by Alyson Steinbrecher early in the fourth frame.

“Defensively, we’re pretty stout, but we sometimes struggle on offense,” Nordics’ coach Kirk Mattson said. “We need to be a little more aggressive going to the rim. In the second half, I thought we did much better getting into our half-court offense. They did a pretty good job moving the ball outside of our zone when we were in it.”

The Nordics then outscored the Cougars 11-10 through the remainder of the contest.

“Our strength is to get in transition,” Mattson said. “If we get defensive rebounds, we can go down the court. We didn’t do a very good job rebounding in the first half and into the third quarter, but did better through the rest of the game.”

The Cougars trailed 11-2 after the opening frame.

Kroupa trimmed Superior Central’s deficit to 11-4 on a layup set up on a pass from Frusti early in the second.

The Nordics got the only other hoop in the second stanza, that on a 15-foot set shot from the left baseline by Khloe Roberts for a 13-4 cushion midway through the second.

Anderson and Ava Oman scored 14 points each for the Nordics, who shot 40 percent from the floor and committed 13 turnovers.

Kroupa hit eight points for the Cougars, who had 15 miscues.

Both teams play again Thursday. The Cougars (2-7) host Big Bay de Noc and the Nordics (6-6) visit Bark River-Harris.

North Dickinson 11 2 14 15 — 42

Superior Central 2 2 5 10 — 19

North Dickinson — Oman 14, Lindholm 3, Ledzian 3, Steinbrecher 6, Roberts 2, Anderson 14. FT: 1-2; F: 10; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Oman 2, Lindholm, Ledzian, Anderson.

Superior Central — Strohm 3, Johnson 2, A. Frusti 6, Kroupa 8. FT: 0-2; F: 10; Fouled out: Perron; 3-point field goals: A. Frusti 2, Strohm.