The Oak Harbor girls basketball team started Wednesday’s WesCo North game against second-place Snohomish like it was going to be a Wildcat runaway.

Mietra Smollack scored 10 points in the first period and Clair Thiel added six, as Oak Harbor took a 19-3 lead.

After that, the Wildcats managed just 20 points for the remainder of the game and fell to the Panthers 49-39.

However, the Cats are still in the running for a post-season playoff berth and are tied with Lake Stevens for third place in the league. Oak Harbor is 7-4 in the WesCo North and 11-4 overall.

“We came out in the first quarter on fire,” coach Brett McLeod said. “Then I thought we just kind of let them take us out of our game after that point and we let them get in the passing lanes.”

Oak Harbor managed just two points in the second period on a pair of Smollack free throws, while the Panthers (9-2, 10-5), put up 14 points to shave the lead to 21-20 at halftime.

“It was a learning experience for us,” McLeod said. “When we have a team down like that, we

have to take advantage of it. We

didn’t get a field goal in the second quarter and were standing a lot on offense.”

McLeod said he thought his players had their heads down a little bit in the third quarter and Snohomish outscored the Wildcats 15-4 to take a 35-25 lead into the final eight minutes of the game.

“I was proud of the girls. We got down by 10 points and responded with a run to cut the lead to three,” McLeod said. “It’s a learning experience for us and we’ll get better.”

Smollack scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Wildcats and Thiel finished with 10.

Katie Benson and Krista Ekness paced Snohomish with 10 points each.

Oak Harbor’s next home game will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31, against Stanwood.

Snohomish 49, Oak Harbor 39

Snohomish 6 14 15 14 — 49

Oak Harbor 19 2 4 14 — 39

Snohomish (49) — Benson 4 2-2 10, Ekness 3 2-2 10, Schmitt 3 1-3 8, Lampman 3 1-2 8, Artim 1 0-0 3, M. Heard 1 0-0 2, Scott 1 0-0 2, Yates 0 6-8 6, E. Heard 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 12-19 49.

Oak Harbor (39) — Smollack 8 6-8 22, Thiel 5 0-0 10, Denmon 0 0-0 0, Russell 0 0-1 0, Baeyen 1 0-0 3, Smith 0 0-1 0, Chong 0 0-0 0, Hendricksen 2 0-0 4. Totals 16 6-10 39.

Three-point goals — Snohomish 5 (Eckness 2, Schmtt, Artim, Lampman); Oak Harbor 1 (Baeyen).