In the span of a few minutes, it really seemed as if the Severna Park girls basketball could take the lead, and at the right time, too. It was early in the fourth quarter, and the Falcons were just two points back. Considering they’d been behind by a dozen to start the game, it was not a bad place to be.

There was just one problem. They couldn’t find Julia Fitzwater.

When the ball fell in the junior’s hands, her toes at the 3-point arc, she let it go. And it landed.

“We ended up losing her and she hurt us. We know what kind of player she is,” Severna Park coach Kris Dean said. “Shooters are going to hurt you at the end of the game if you can’t find them.”

Bolstered by a 12-0 run to open play and another 12 points in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks survived Severna Park’s attempts to rally and earned a 38-29 victory on Monday in a contest ruled by defense.

“I thought our defense, at the beginning of the game and the end of the game, really stepped up,” South River coach Mike Zivic said. “A lot of it, too, was we took quality shots that went in. That’s the key because, before, we were struggling with the shots.”

Fitzwater powered South River, especially at the end, with 15 points, four steals and two assists. Ashlynn Burrows anchored the Seahawks with six rebounds, four of them defensive, and five forced turnovers.

Most of the Seahawks, and Falcons, too, proved more than capable of shutting their opposing ball-handlers down. By mid-game, the ball shot around the floor more like a pinball machine than a basketball. Both teams totaled 14 steals, 23 turnovers and 10 points off turnovers; South River had 16 defensive rebounds while Severna Park had 15.

All of that fits Zivic’s vision of the two squads — pretty similar with slight variations, like heads and tails on the same coin.

“We have a familiarity with each other,” he said. “We know what each other’s going to do.”

They didn’t look the same at first. The Seahawks (15-2) married their unchallenged first-quarter offense — led by Fitzwater’s six points off two 3-pointers — with strong defense. Both of Severna Park’s first two possessions ended with a Seahawk punching the ball away, and South River monopolized the post, pulling offensive rebounds and scoring four second-chance points.

Boosted by four points from junior Lena McLaughlin, Severna Park (11-6) fought back as the quarter clock ticked down to trim their guest’s advantage to seven, 14-7.

Of course, the Falcons would need to prevent the first quarter from becoming the trend of the evening.

“We know the game goes up and down, and it’s up to us to manage the down,” Dean said. “Stop the ‘down’ as quick as possible and go on our run. But they got off to a good start. We didn’t start the way we were hoping to.”

Severna Park’s defense locked up the Seahawks shooters, but South River managed the same. The hosts changed the scoreboard first, with a free throw, the beginning of seven chances at the foul line for the Falcons in the second quarter.

“We got in a little foul trouble,” Zivic said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do some things we should, offensively.”

The Seahawks had just as many field goals as Severna Park before halftime — a pair of two-pointers apiece — to inch their lead along to 19-13 at the halftime buzzer.

“Our strengths,” Fitzwater said, “when we don’t score as much, is running the ball, passing the ball around, working the defense and passing inside for the inside shot.”

The second quarter, though, was only a hint at what the third would bring. Both teams failed to score until three minutes in — Caitlin McGuirk’s layup for South River — but that didn’t seem to bother Severna Park.

With 3:30 remaining, senior point guard Rachel Spilker hit a 3. Then, junior Jess Albert and sophomore Hailey Betch shored up the score with a pair of shots. As time ran out, Spilker stripped the Seahawks, fed it to junior Cam Chew (eight points), who passed it to senior Kelsey Powers for the buzzer-beating shot.

They carried that momentum into the fourth, when Albert’s layup clipped South River’s lead to 26-24. For really the first time since the game was scoreless, Dean felt his Falcons had the “spark.”

As the jaws of Severna Park closed on the Seahawks, their objective was pretty simple.

“The biggest priority was to stop them, make sure they didn’t score and make sure we scored,” Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater’s 3-pointer opened the 12-point run for the Seahawks, aided along by a handful of missed jumpers and layups for the Falcons.

“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times to win,” Dean said. “I’d like one more quarter, but we can’t do that.”