St. Bede coach Tom Ptak knew the last game of the day against IVC was going to be the pivotal game of the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic for his Bruins on Saturday.

The Bruins played like they knew the task at hand, battling back each time the Grey Ghosts took a sizeable lead.

They fell behind 10-2 at the start of the game, trailed by 11 at the half and as much as 13 points after three quarters. And while they used a 9-1 run early in the fourth quarter, closing within five points, the Bruins ran out of gas at the end, falling 59-51.

“We were doing some scouting and knew this was going to be the match right here,” Ptak said. “Even though our record didn’t indicate it, we felt we could compete with them. We prepared for them. We knew they did a 1-3-1 half-court trap. We struggled with that and tried a couple different things. Hopefully, we’ll take it as a learning experience.

“We’ll get better. They play hard. There’s just some lapses here and there.’

The Bruins (6-7) finished 1-1 on the day, defeating Orion 45-36 in their early game. They will finish off the tournament with another doubleheader on Saturday, facing Brimfield at 9 a.m. and Sandwich at 5:35 p.m.

IVC (12-4) is the only team to finish the day 2-0 and looks to finish off a title run with games Saturday against Putnam County (0-2) and Serena (1-1). The Grey Ghosts last won the St. Bede tournament in 2009, defeating Bureau Valley 65-42. The Ghosts won five times from 2001-09.

In other Friday games, Sandwich defeated Serena 42-35 and lost to IVC 65-27, Serena defeated Brimfield 41-22 and Putnam County lost to Brimfield 59-16 and Orion 58-27.

IVC 59, St. Bede 51: The Bruins scored six straight in the third quarter, using a basket in the post by Ava Balestri to draw within 30-23. The Ghosts, however, opened up their biggest lead of the night at 39-26 at the end of the third quarter.

St. Bede made its last charge, using a 7-0 run on a deep 3-pointer by senior guard Lili McClain, a basket in the post by Savanna Bray and a layup off a long rebound by freshman Hannah Heiberger to cut IVC’s lead to 44-38 with 5:15 left to play.

Ptak said some halftime adjustments helped the B riins.

“Got some rotations on defense, bumping on the wings. It made a little difference,” he said. “We just didn’t make some of the baskets that we needed to make at the right time. they’re a good team though. They played well.”

Two free throws by Ava Balestri drew the Bruins within 45-40 at the 4:04 mark and 3-pointer from the top of the key by sophomore Parker McClain made it 49-43 with three minutes remaining.

“They played hard from the start of the game until the end,” IVC coach Brianna Morrow said. “St. Bede’s got some really good guard and rebounded incredibly well, especially down the stretch. They shot really well from the free throw line and that really hurt us.”

“It’s tough to play on the home team’s court. The night game is a tough one and you’ve already played one today. I was proud how we were able to gut it out.”

“They’re one of the top teams in this tournament. For us to finish well today was really, really good.”

Lily McClain led the Bruins with 18 points, helped by a 11 of 11 effort at the free throw line, twice sinking 3 of 3 when fouled on 3-point shots.

“Lily’s our go-to person. I like how she’s getting a little stronger taking it to the hole. I think that makes a big difference. If you can drive like that, the defender’s got to honor that and it opens up the 3 for her. And she’s got good range on her 3s.”

The Bruins got strong post play with Balestri (10) and Bray (8) combining for 18 points.

Rianna Foster scored a game-high 20 points for the Grey Ghosts and teammate Alayah Nelton added 11.

St. Bede 45, Orion 36: The Bruins outscored the Chargers 17-5 in the third quarter to break open a 1-point lead at the half to go up 38-25.

Lily McClain scored nine of her game-high 23 points in the decisive third quarter.

Brimfield 59, Putnam County 16: Kaylnn Hill scored nine points for the Panthers in their opening game of the day.

Orion 58, Putnam County 27: Emberlyn Cwikla led the Panthers with eight points and Piper Terando added seven as the PC fell to 0-2 on the day.

PC will play IVC at 10:25 a.m. and Sandwich at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Note: The tournament concludes with eight games Saturday starting at 9 a.m. There is no championship game this year in the new modified round-robin format.