Steamboat Springs — If judging just by score, the Steamboat Springs High School girls basketball team got 10 points better.

Judging by play, however, Steamboat coach John Ameen said his team showed much more improvement in Friday’s 72-52 loss to Green River, Wyo., in the Flaming Gorge Classic Basketball tournament.

“It was a fun game in seeing that struggle and seeing our kids fight back like that,” said Ameen, whose Steamboat team lost by 30 last week to Green River. “It was so much different than last week.”

Despite the score, Steamboat (3-4 overall) was in the contest the whole time. The Sailors trailed by 14 at halftime before cutting the lead to three midway through the third quarter. After Green River took control again in the fourth quarter, Steamboat got the lead down into single digits.

“We just never got over the hump,” Ameen said. “The last three minutes of the fourth quarter, even with our deep rotation, we ran out of energy both physically and emotionally.”

Darcy Hornstein paced the Sailors with 15 points. Gracie Stockdale added 13 points, and Colleen King chipped in 12.

Ameen said he was pleased with the way the Sailors played all day.

He said one of the biggest reasons Steamboat was able to play better was efficiency on the offensive end.

The Sailors were much more patient and ran through their offense, Ameen said.

“I definitely think this game is the most consistent our offense has been all year,” he said. “Midway through that fourth quarter, we expended so much emotion and physical energy, we just lost our endurance because we were fighting back so much.”

Now Steamboat turns its attention to Rock Springs, Wyo., whom it plays at 1:30 p.m. today. Ameen didn’t know a lot about Rock Springs but said with the way his Steamboat team played in the second half of Thursday’s game and through Friday’s game, he is confident Steamboat has an opportunity to come away with a win today.

“I just want to reiterate how we played today and the improvement we did make, even though the score was only 10 points better,” he said. “The whole game was between three and 12 points. We were right there for pretty much the whole game.”