Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s girls’ basketball season ended after a 62-36 VISAA Division II state tournament loss to Seton School Wednesday night.

The Lady Saints traveled to Manassas on Wednesday to take on Seton School in the second round of the state tournament. On Tuesday night at home, NSA had picked up a 57-28 win against Steward School in the first round and had to hit the road for a battle against Seton School.

But NSA took the loss to a Seton School team that shot 46 percent from the three-point line.

“They shot lights out,” Lady Saints coach Kim Aston said. “They had the home court advantage. They had a huge crowd there. It swung a lot of the momentum earlier in the game. It put us in a hole pretty quickly.”

Seton School hit their first six three-pointers in the first quarter and made 10 of the 12 three-pointers for the game in the first half. It proved to be a long night for NSA’s Lady Saints, who hit only one three-pointer out of their 20 attempts.

After the first quarter of play, NSA was down 22-8 due to the hot shooting of Seton School. After digging the hole deeper in the second quarter, NSA was down 38-15 going into the half. The Lady Saints played a bit better in the second half, but ultimately Seton School’s superior shooting outweighed any comeback attempt NSA had planned.

During the scouting process, Aston didn’t expect the team to shoot quite as well as they did. It seemed as if it was just one of those games for Seton School where everything went their way.

“Defensively, we didn’t play bad or as bad as the score would indicate,” Aston said. “It was just they were hitting shots and we couldn’t. I feel like our teams were pretty evenly matched, but there isn’t much you can do when a team is shooting 70 percent from the floor.”

Lindsay Knierbein led NSA in scoring Wednesday night with 14 points to go along with 15 rebounds. For the game, NSA shot 23 percent from the field, which is hard to overcome during any game.

“It was a disappointing way to end the season, but I think we did more than people expected us to do,” Aston said. “Next year we are going to have to continue to build on it.”

NSA finished first in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools after not being the preseason favorite. The Lady Saints also finished runner-up in the conference tournament.

They also had three All-Conference players this year in seniors Knierbein, Kelly Hogan and Logan Harrell. Aston knows that replacing those three players’ production may not come immediately, but she’s excited about next year.

Kaylah Brown will headline the returners next year, and Aston is excited about the player she can be in her senior season. Brown’s game started picking up towards the end of the season as she scored in double figures in all but one postseason game. She was also a TCIS All-Tournament selection.

“I think she will be one of the best players in the conference next year,” Aston said. “She was new to us this year, so it took us some time to get used to each other.”

NSA 57, Steward School 28

NSA- Hogan 26 pts 15 rebs, Knierbein 14 pts 11 rebs, Brown 10 pts, Harrell 2 pts 10 asts, Herrod 2 pts

SS- Traynham 9 pts, Fonville 9 pts, Magnano 6 pts, Laibstain 2 pts, David 2 pts

3’s- NSA- Brown (2), Knierbein (1)

Seton School 62, NSA 36

NSA- Knierbein 14 pts 15 rebs, Hogan 11 pts 12 rebs, Brown 7 pts, Harrell 2 pts, Aston 2 pts,