The Lady Lancers were at the mercy of free throws in their 46-44 Section 1-AA loss to visiting Riverside.

Mackenzie MacKay hit two free throws in the final seconds to give the Lady Panthers (8-2, 16-2) the victory.

Riverside connected on 13 of its 17 free-throw attempts, while Neshannock (7-2, 13-3) hit eight of its 16 tries from the line.

“You can’t shoot 50 percent from the free-throw line and expect to win games,” Neshannock coach Luann Grybowski said. “It hurts. They made 13 of 17 so you can’t fault them. They made their free throws and we didn’t. It’s not that we didn’t have good looks and good shots because we did.”

Neshannock held a double-digit lead in the third quarter, but couldn’t make enough plays to secure the victory.

“We missed layups, we missed free throws,” Grybowski said. “Down the stretch, they hit two threes in the corner. We didn’t get out. Abbey Matiko scored eight of their 15 in the fourth.”

Madison McHale led Neshannock with 15 points, while Tayler Grybowski, the coach’s daughter, tallied 13 points.

Katie Stang led the Lady Panthers with 19 points.

The Lady Lancers now find themselves in a precarious position in the Section 1-AA standings.

Riverside has taken the top spot from Neshannock, now tied with Mohawk. Mohawk will get its chance to play Riverside at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

“We just put ourselves in a tough position,” Grybowski said. “With a win we could’ve put ourselves up.

“We still have New Brighton, Shenango and Laurel. We need to go back to the drawing board and do the little things. The little things are what wins you basketball games. That’s where we need to be. So we’ll see how we are in the face of adversity.”