Staff photo / Preston Byers South Range’s Taylor Dado (10) guards Niles’ Jazmin Smith on a fast break during the Red Dragons’ win Monday in Niles.

NILES — Plagued by turnovers on one end and fouls on the other, South Range struggled to find any semblance of a flow Monday night in a 47-33 road Northeast 8 Conference loss to Niles.

“Foul trouble got us in a little bit of a bind,” South Range head coach James Heath said. “Just really got us out of sync. We weren’t able to do what we wanted to do. Defensively and of course when you have people off the floor, it will mess with you offensively.”

Before the fouls truly became an issue Monday, neither team could create much breathing room in the opening quarter. Niles scored six straight points to take a 6-3 lead and later went ahead by four, but the teams never strayed any further than that through the first quarter.

In the second, however, Kherington Stanford nearly single-handedly pushed the Red Dragons out in front. After a Gwen Lowry basket opened the period and tied the game at 12 apiece, Stanford scored every point of an 8-0 Niles run in less than two minutes.

While Stanford soon left the floor to rest and avoid getting into further foul trouble, a common issue for players on both teams Monday, the Dragons defense held South Range to just five points over the final 6:45 of the half and took a 24-17 lead into the break.

“Coming into tonight, we knew our bench had to play a valuable role, and they stepped up big time,” Niles coach Chelsea DiPaolo said of maintaining the lead with Stanford out. “Jazmin Smith plays a lot of JV; she had to step up. Grace [Guarnieri], one of our girls who was our sixth, seventh man got hurt, and Jazmin stepped up big time.”

The fast and aggressive strategy of turning defense into offense continued into the third quarter, during which the Dragons expanded their lead to 10 at multiple points as the Raiders half-court offense failed to find its footing. In the lowest-scoring quarter of the game, South Range made five free throws and zero field goals. Niles, again playing without Stanford due to foul trouble, did little better, scoring a pair of baskets and a pair of foul shots in a six-point quarter of its own as traveling violations began to become more common.

Both teams fared better offensively in the fourth quarter, but they each faced their share of foul trouble; for Niles, Stanford cautiously defended with four fouls, while Lowry, Taylor Dado and Sophia Lucente did the same for the Raiders at various points.

The fouls, but more importantly, the deficit proved to be too much to overcome for South Range in the final eight minutes. Despite buckets by Lowry and Lucente pulling the team within six points with four minutes to go, Ava Ferri scored four of her own to push the Niles lead back to eight with 2:35 remaining. For much of the rest of the contest, Niles shot free throws, totaling 34 attempts on the night, and South Range struggled to efficiently chip away at the lead.

“They made 22 [free throws], so that’s a lot,” Heath said. “That could be because we didn’t play good defense. It could be because we were tired; there could be a lot of things that go into that. Bottom line is when they make 22 and you lose by 13, it stings a little bit.”

Stanford, who scored 15 points in the first 12 minutes, finished with a game-high 18 Monday. Ferri added 13, while Lowry scored a team-best 17, and Lucente finished with 8 points.

South Range (6-5, 2-3 in Northeast 8) had won three of four since the holiday break going into Monday’s game. The Raiders will now turn their attention to an away tilt league rival Girard on Thursday.

As for Niles (10-3, 4-2 in NE8), it is back in the win column after a 47-45 loss to Poland last Thursday snapped a seven-game win streak. The Dragons will try to string wins together again this Thursday, when they host Jefferson Area.