Steamboat Springs — This time the effort was there, but the result was the same as Day 1 of the Steamboat Shoot-Out as the Sailors girls squad lost another big one to defending tournament champion Elizabeth, 61-24, on Friday night.

With leading scorer and top playmaker Annie Osbourn going down Thursday night with what looks to be a serious knee injury, the Sailors carried some second-half struggles into Friday, turning the ball over much more than coach Mack Spitellie would like to see in the 37-point loss.

There were glimpses of hope here and there Friday against the Cardinals, but the execution still needs work, Spitellie admitted.

“Tough tournament so far,” Spitellie said. “It was much better than last night. They finally came out and played instead of just giving in because of losing Annie. We found a little bit more of an offensive rhythm in the second half of that game. That’s what we’ll struggle with.”

Osbourn was averaging more than 12 points per game coming into the Shoot-Out but was resigned to the end of the bench against the Cardinals, sporting a bulky knee brace and crutches.

The Sailors dug themselves into an awfully big hole through 16 minutes against a team that played deep into last year’s Class 4A state tournament. Steamboat was down, 35-12, at the break, and then rekindled a little life later in the third and early in the fourth, but it was too little, far too late.

“Now we have to find the point guard (to replace Osbourn) who will step up and not turn the ball over,” Spitellie said. “I mean, the turnovers are just killing us.”

Megan Limberg and Jenna Miller led the way in scoring with six points each. Kady Look added four points.

Steamboat gets another chance at it early Saturday afternoon, and they’ll take on Frederick, which won its opener against Battle Mountain by 13 points, but lost Friday night to Palmer Ridge by 34 points.

“Things were better tonight, so hopefully in the morning we’ll be a little bit better,” Spitellie said. “At least then I can see they’ve made some progress. Young kids can only get better; now someone just has to step up. Maybe I need two people to step up and get the points Annie was getting. I don’t know, but I do know we need it.”

Tipoff is at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Kelly Meek Gymnasium.

To reach Ben Ingersoll, call 970-871-4204, email bingersoll@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @BenMIngersoll.