Meskwaki senior guard Geanna Bear (3) drives past Waterloo Christian defender Allison White (15) during the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Class 1A Region 5 quarterfinal basketball game at Meskwaki Settlement School. -- Photo by Ross Thede

For all the things that went wrong early on, the Meskwaki girls’ basketball team still had its chances to make it right by the end of the night.

It’s just a lot harder to win when the ball isn’t going in.

The Warriors’ frigid start gave way to a frantic comeback, but Waterloo Christian had already done enough to secure victory, 46-36, in Tuesday’s Class 1A Region 5 quarterfinal contest.

The Regents (14-8) avenged their 47-40 loss to Meskwaki on the same court in both teams’ regular-season finale on Feb. 4 thanks to an improved shooting performance and better defense. The absence of Meskwaki sophomore starting forward Kalayna White didn’t hurt Waterloo Christian’s chances, either.

White, who had nine points and 11 rebounds in the first meeting, was out sick and therefore unable to help the Warriors (18-5) do what they had done against the Regents in their previous six meetings: win.

Instead, Waterloo Christian scored the game’s first 13 points, led by as many as 18 during the third quarter and held off the Warriors long enough to advance to Friday’s regional semifinal at No. 15 Baxter (23-0).

“We were just missing shots and we didn’t get the ball in the middle enough and missed some layups,” said Meskwaki head coach Emmett Whalen, “but credit to them, they had a good game plan, they excuted that zone pretty dang good and we just weren’t good enough tonight.”

Waterloo Christian’s 3-2 zone was even more effective without White to help roam the high post for the Warriors, who didn’t make a field goal for the first 12 minutes, 10 seconds of game time. The Regents led 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Wakinyela Bear made a free throw at the 7:02 mark of the second period to put the Warriors on the board for the first time, but Waterloo Christian’s lead eventually expanded as high as 16 before settling at 13 by halftime, 25-12.

After Bear turned a steal into a layup to start the second half, Waterloo Christian chalked up the next seven points to achieve its biggest lead of 18.

Slowly but frantically, Meskwaki made as much of a comeback as it was capable of despite a shorter bench than normal and the residual effects of being without a starter. Sitara Xaivong and Bear made back-to-back 3-pointers, and Bear closed the third quarter with another to make it an 11-point game, 36-25.

Bear scored the Warriors’ first five points of the second half to get the deficit down to seven, 37-30, with 5:35 to play. Meskwaki made just enough mistakes on defense, however, to allow Waterloo Christian to escape with the win.

“We knew they were going to come out and play harder to get us, get their revenge,” Wakinyela said, “but I also think the loss of Kalayna really hurt us. We really wanted her to play with us so we pretty much dedicated this game to her so she could play with us on Friday hopefully, but it didn’t turn out today.”

As the Regents went to set up their four-corner offense in hopes of melting time off the clock, Meskwaki’s defense lost track of Katie Costello. The sophomore guard, uncontested, swished her fifth 3-pointer of the night and the Regents made 7-of-10 free throws in the final period to put the win and eliminate the Warriors.

“I think that one of the biggest differences was they shot pretty poorly the last time,” Whalen said. “I thought we played good defense last time but we kept losing Costello tonight. We knew we were going to have to guard her and we kept being two steps late and it hurt us.”

Costello finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Regents. She had a game-high 19 points the first time these two teams faced off, but it required 26 shot attempts to there.

Reagan Wheeler added 13 points for the Regents and Allison White finished with five points.

Wakinyela had a team-high 20 points for Meskwaki, making four of the team’s six 3-pointers to cap her first and final season with the Warriors. Sia Bear and Xaivong had five points apiece while Geanna Bear, Irene Keahna and Summer Youngbear added two points each. Shye Johnson, a senior, and sophomore Sophie Balderas both played but didn’t score.

“We went with a four-guard lineup to start and it’s OK if you can hit some shots then you can get away with that for a little but, but it definitely started to show when we couldn’t get the ball in the middle and move it from there,” Whalen said. “We didn’t do a very good job of that. We had a few opportunities where we missed some layups and some free throws, but we didn’t get the ball in the middle enough to spread them out.

“We knew people were going to have to step up (without White) and I thought we all played hard, but just losing that size definitely hurt us on the boards and they got a lot of second-chance points on us.”

It was the final game for Meskwaki seniors Johnson, Youngbear, and Wakinyela and Geanna Bear, but Whalen pointed out what they did last year and in the offseason and how it helped the Warriors get to this stage.

“The thing I’m most proud of is last year at Christmas break we were 1-and-7 and down in the dumps and not playing good basketball and not having the most fun, but we kept grinding and we started to have fun and we started winning games. We put in a lot of work last summer and I think it showed up this year.”

Waterloo Christian 46, Meskwaki 36

WATERLOO CHRISTIAN (14-8) — Sidra Wheeler 1 0-0 2, Allison White 1 3-3 5, Lauren Bergstrom 1 0-0 3, Reagan Wheeler 4 5-8 13, Katie Costello 6 5-8 22, Sydney Aronson 0 1-2 1. TOTALS 13 14-21 46.

MESKWAKI (18-5) — Shye Johnson 0 0-0 0, Wakinyela Bear 6 4-6 20, Geanna Bear 1 0-2 2, Sia Bear 2 0-0 5, Summer Youngbear 1 0-4 2, Irene Keahna 1 0-0 2, Sitara Xaivong 2 0-0 5, Sophie Balderas 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 4-12 36.

W. CHRISTIAN 13 12 11 10 — 46

MESKWAKI 0 12 13 11 — 36

3-Point Goals-Waterloo Christian 6 (Costello 5, Bergstrom), Meskwaki 6 (W.Bear 4, S.Bear, Xiavong). Team Fouls-Waterloo Christian 11, Meskwaki 19. Fouled Out-W.Bear.