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ATTLEBORO - Just about everything that could go wrong did Wednesday night for the Bishop Feehan High School girls' basketball team.

The result was the Shamrocks' first loss of the season, a 59-52 non-league loss to a team they had beaten by 15 points in the season opener.

The loss not only cost the Shamrocks their unbeaten record as they enter tonight's play in the Attleboro Area Girls' Holiday Tournament, they are also likely to be without promising sophomore guard Amy Lepley for a few games after she sprained her right ankle driving to the basket with 11:47 left in the second half.

Lepley's injury had a Murphy's Law quality to it. Feehan (3-1) had already been forced to play at least half of the first half without its leading scorer, junior Danielle Fontaine, due to two quick fouls. The visiting Hilltoppers (2-2) built a four-point lead at the break and added confidence each time they beat back a Shamrock surge.

Even with Fontaine shooting lights-out in the second half, scoring 13 of her 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field before fouling out, Feehan never could recapture the lead. "We were so impatient," said Feehan coach Mike Deady, citing Durfee's ability to trap his Shamrocks into an uncomfortable halfcourt game. "In the end, they captured the tempo of the game and that's what really hurt us."

Durfee, coached by former Dighton-Rehoboth boys' and Case girls' coach Tony Martin, learned its lesson from the first meeting by not pressing and running with the Shamrocks.

"He played us the way we needed to be played," said Deady, citing Durfee's 40-35 rebounding advantage, including 16 offensive rebounds and three putback baskets.

There were seven lead changes and one tie over the first six minutes of play, but the Hilltoppers embarked upon a 9-0 surge, much of it with Fontaine on the bench, to prove that they weren't going to run and hide from a misfiring Feehan fast break.

Lepley almost singlehandedly led the Shamrocks back, throwing in a 19-footer with 7:07 left, a 16-footer with 6:24 left and a fast-break lay-in with 4:53 left to tie the score at 15-15 - as it turned out, Feehan's last tie.

Guard Kate McDonald (15 points) ended that run with one of her four three-pointers, and she had five of Durfee's six points to start the second half and keep the Hilltoppers in front, 28-22, with 13:07 left to play.

Fontaine tried to spark a Feehan comeback with a rainbow three-pointer, followed by a turn-around rebound putback by Jenna Roncarati. But Lepley's injury put a crimp in the Shamrocks' momentum, and even though Kate Degnan sank those two free throws to keep a 7-2 run going and cut the Durfee lead to 30-29, the Hilltoppers answered with a baby-hook in the lane by Caitlin Belanger (10 points).

Feehan hung within three points of the visitors over the next four minutes, swapping basket for basket. But Durfee forward Amber Burns (13 points, 11 rebounds) was fouled under the basket by Fontaine with 6:01 left, and after she hit the first of the two free throws, she missed the second but was able to sneak past everyone for the rebound of the second. Her putback basket, putting Durfee up 48-42, was a knife in the heart of Feehan's comeback hopes.

Feehan stayed within four points, but Fontaine fouled out with 1:01 left, and the Shamrocks didn't score again until Degnan's putback at the buzzer.

"We've been out front, and we've been beating the doors off people, but they set back in a zone and we fell behind, and we weren't patient against the zone," Deady said. Four Hilltoppers reached double figures, led by Alex Fiola's 16 points. Roncarati, a skilled sophomore, threw in 10 points (eight in the second half), grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and dished out five assists for the Shamrocks, who shot a respectable 42.9 percent from the field (21-49).