The Pike Liberal Arts Lady Patriots’ eight game winning streak come to halt Friday when they fell to Escambia Academy 40-38 in the second round of the AISA region tournament.

The Lady Patriots defeated Escambia Academy twice in the regular season by at least 20 points.

“I give them a lot of credit. They played really hard,” said Patriots head coach Robert Hawkins. “Like I told the girls: we played hard; they just played harder.

Both teams had trouble scoring on Friday, but the Patriots held the lead at the half and at the start of the fourth quarter. The turning point of the game happened early in the fourth quarter when Regine Parker, one of the Patriots’ leading scorers, fouled out of the game.

“We had six-point lead at that point and tried to hold on to it,” Hawkins said. “We just don’t have very good depth when it comes to ball handlers. Once she fouled, we couldn’t hold on to the lead.”

Both teams struggled offensively.

“It was sloppy,” Hawkins said. “We have been scoring close to 60 points per game. I think we scored only eight to 10 points in the second half. We just couldn’t get anything going. We couldn’t get the flow of the game going in our direction. That’s my fault for us not getting going.”

The Patriots drew a bye in the first round and Hawkins said the players may have been focused on the next game.

“I think sometimes you just lay and egg and I think we laid one,” Hawkins said. “Nobody played good and nobody coached good. It was one of those games that was poorly played and poorly coached.”

Even with the loss, the Patriots qualify for the state tournament. They will play a seeding game today.

“We are playing (today) for the third and fourth seed,” Hawkins said. “It really hurt because of who we are going to play. There are some strong teams on the other side and we will have to play their one or two seed.”

Pike will play Autauga Academy at 1 p.m. at Fort Dale Academy in Greenville.