By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

For Riverside, a furious comeback was halted in heartbreaking fashion on Tuesday night.

After trailing by as many as 24, the Lady Rebels clawed back against district foe Fisher and trailed by two with a second left and RA’s Lauren Doyle at the foul line.

Doyle hit the first shot, but her second attempt was negated when the Rebels were whistled for a violation for crossing the 3-point line before the ball was released, and the Gators held on to a 44-43 victory.

“It’s a tough way to lose. But we shouldn’t have even put ourselves in that situation,” said Riverside coach Kristy Hebert.

Megan Malik led Riverside (4-20, 2-3) with 16 points. Kristy Milioto added 12.

Riverside trailed 41-22 entering the fourth quarter but dominated the final period, outscoring Fisher 21-3 to close out the game.

“We finally started putting in some easy shots, and we played really well defensively in the fourth,” Hebert said. “We were just very sluggish in the first half.”

The Rebels scored only 11 points in the first half, against 30 for Fisher (8-10, 2-3), which Hebert said got far too many baskets in the lane.

“They made layup after layup,” said Hebert. “They hit two outside shots, and on everything else they got past our defense.”

Fisher was scoreless for over seven minutes in the fourth quarter, and Riverside took advantage to pull ahead 42-41 with a minute remaining.

The Rebels weren’t able to freeze the ball, though, and Fisher finally broke through on the scoreboard with a layup that put the team up 43-42. Fisher would add a foul-shot to go ahead by two.

Hebert chalked it up as another learning experience for her young group.

“I told them that if we could have played one more quarter, it might well have been a blowout. They showed a lot of heart, and I’m happy they didn’t shut it down when we went down by 24,” she said. “But it’s a lesson learned. If you don’t show up every day, anything can happen. And we waited too long to show up.”