WINDHAM — Biddeford’s offense had a case of the Mondays against Windham in an SMAA girls basketball game on Monday afternoon, as the Tigers made just seven field goals in a 37-22 loss at Windham High School.

Biddeford (1-5) didn’t take long to get on the board as Charlotte White nailed a 3-pointer on the Tigers’ second possession. Windham’s Sadie Nelson answered with a triple of her own, but those were the lone field goals in the opening quarter for either team. Only a pair of free throws by Biddeford’s Brook Davis gave the Tigers a 5-3 lead after eight minutes.

“Windham is a great team defensively, they kind of bothered our shots a little bit,” said Biddeford head coach Liz Bell. “So it was hard to recover from that.”

White hit a pull-up jumper on Biddeford’s first possession of the second quarter to put the Tigers up 7-3, but the Eagles (2-4) went ahead as Nelson completed a three-point play and Erin Malloy made a pair of free throws.

Malloy’s work from the charity stripe put the Eagles on top and they further extended their run to 9-0 and a 12-7 lead.

A put-back by Kendra Cote ended the run and cut the deficit to 12-9 with 2:45 left in the half. The three-point deficit stood heading into the intermission, with the Eagles holding a 16-13 advantage. The Tigers were just 4-of-27 from the field and 4-of-14 from the line in the first half.

“We missed 10 free throws in the first half and that really kind of got us down a little bit mentally,” said Bell. “At the half, I went in saying ”˜just focus a little bit extra, let’s take our time, the shots will fall, the shots will fall,’ and it never really seemed to swing our way.”

Biddeford was able to knot the game at 18-18 just over three minutes into the third quarter on Brittany Roy three-point play, but Windham scored the final four points of the period to take a 22-18 lead into the fourth quarter.

Experience won out in the fourth, as Nelson ”“ a three-year starter as a junior ”“ and senior Luisa Sbardella ”“ dropped in four points apiece. Nelson finished with a game-high 14 points ”“ the only player in the game with double digits in points ”“ despite playing with foul trouble for much of the final three quarters.

“She’s definitely a tough matchup; she can play inside, she can play outside. Somebody with her ability and her aggressiveness and toughness is definitely a hard matchup for us,” Bell said of Nelson. “We tried to double-team her, we tried to run different defenses at her, but she handled it and played well the entire game.”

White scored a team-high eight points for Biddeford, but none came after halftime. Davis ”“ just a freshman ”“ added five points on 5-of-10 shooting from the free-throw line.

“Being in different pressure situations is great for younger players. I have a freshman point guard, and for her to be able to see this at such a young age is great for her,” said Bell. “Just naturally they’re going to learn from it.”

The Tigers have more than a week off before they host Scarborough ”“ which beat Biddeford 53-19 to open the season ”“ next Tuesday.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board and keep working and keep shooting,” said Bell.

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.