A loss may be a loss, but Bob McQuiston said there was a silver lining last night nonetheless.

The Shenango High boys basketball team’s 61-56 nonleague defeat at Beaver actually was encouraging in a sense, according to the Wildcats’ coach.

“After losing last night (Tuesday) against Neshannock, we had two choices: bounce back or fold,” he said. “We got refocused and in the second half, even though we lost, we made it a game.

“The loss to Neshannock was tough on us because it was an important section game and then to be on the road two nights in a row made it even tougher. But our guys showed a lot of character. I was very proud of our effort.”

Shenango fell behind 17-12 after one quarter and 30-21 at the half, but came roaring back in the third period and pulled to within two points. Each team scored 21 points in the fourth period.

“It was definitely nip and tuck; they’d get it to six, we’d bring it back within three or four, it just went like that for the whole second half, but we just couldn’t quite get over the hump,” McQuiston said. “The difference in the game was that they made their foul shots in the fourth quarter. We’d make a shot, then we had to foul and they were able to keep themselves in front that way. Sometimes when you are forced to do that, your team doesn’t score at the other end and that’s how teams end up getting blown out. But that didn’t happen to us, we were in it until the end.”

Jeff Williams paced Shenango with 23 points and Jordan O’Hara added 10. Christian Herstine checked in with 19 and Nick Conjeski added 16 for Class AAA Beaver (9-3 overall).

Although Shenango (7-6) has lost four straight games, McQuiston said he is not discouraged.

“We’re not even halfway through the section season yet, so we still have time,” he said of his team’s fifth-place standing in Section 2-AA. “But at the same time, we need to string some wins together and hopefully that starts soon.”