BREMERTON — The Lady Vikes’ tangle in Bremerton Wednesday night promised to settle one thing — third place in the Narrows League Bridge at the halfway point in division play.

After a dominant performance by the Knights (6-7, 4-3) in a 59-49 win, North Kitsap (8-5, 3-4) can be glad there is still half a league slate left to play.

“We didn’t play our best game and we’re not where we want to be,” said Vikings’ coach Dan Weedin. “We wanted to be in Bremerton’s position right now.”

Despite the loss, Weedin said he has seen many positives for his team.

“We’re still in better shape than at the end of the first half last year,” he said. “We have four of our last seven (games) at home. We still control our own destiny and that destiny is to get into the playoffs in some shape or form.”

The Knights controlled things Wednesday, jumping ahead 15-7 early on a 7-0 run.

“It started getting away from us a bit in the first half,” Weedin said. “We were (coming back) well for a while there.”

Indeed, a 5-0 North run closed the first frame at 15-12.

A battle was established early between Viking forward Jade Niemeyer and the Knights’ Candace Grettenberger down low. The difference was Grettenberger could confidently get the ball back outside to sure-shot guard Jenn Jacobs, who displayed a sweet stroke throughout the contest, whereas everything from outside consistently fell short for North Kitsap.

But Niemeyer’s persistence under the hoop kept it close. Bremerton had difficulty stretching its lead to double digits during the first half because whenever it got close, either Niemeyer would come back with a vengeance or the Vikings would hit a timely three-pointer.

Guard Katie West drained a trey at the buzzer for North to close the gap to 28-21 at halftime.

Then, the third quarter happened. And with it, a double-digit lead.

Grettenberger scored 10 of her 14 and the quicker Knights wore down their foe.

The deficit grew to 20 for North late in the third and Niemeyer could not will her team back into the game.

Even so, the 5-foot-11-inch post continued to be a thorn in the Knights’ side throughout, scoring 25 points, but Bremerton standout Jacobs matched her scoring total.

The Vikings tried to come on strong in the final period but the effort came too late to do anything more than make the final score a bit more respectable.

Weedin had a simple explanation for the third quarter surge that boosted Bremerton to the important win.

“They shot the ball well,” he said. “We didn’t rebound very well.”

A lid appeared to be sealed over the basket for the Vikings while everything went right for the Knights in order to be able to break the game open in the big third quarter.

By the time the lid came off in the final frame, it was just too late.

The opposing coaches each came away impressed with the other’s stars.

“Niemeyer was just killing us,” said Knights coach Daniel McInnis. “But one player can’t beat a team.”

“I don’t think Jacobs missed until the very end of the game,” Weedin said.