BELLEVILLE — The fifth-ranked Orioles have been put on notice.

After winning 10 of its first 11 games, Argyle was brought back down to earth with a 68-44 thumping at the hands of Belleville (9-4).

“I think it was a good learning lesson. We kind of were riding the highs, and I think we got a good reality check that we have to work harder, and we have to continue to work harder if we want to beat these teams down the stretch,” Argyle coach Nicole Allison said.

The Wildcats, a Division four school, outscored the Orioles 35-16 in the second half. Coming into the game, Argyle (10-2) was ranked fifth in the state in Division 5 in the WisSports.net Coaches poll, and seventh in the Associated Press poll.

“Unfortunately, in that second half we couldn’t find our groove. We got killed on that leaker that went out and would beat us in transition,” Allison said.

The first half was a fairly even contest. Turnovers were an issue for both sides, as each team tried its best to press and get up and down the floor as quickly as possible. Argyle found success in the half-court against a man-to-man defensive set, but later struggled against the zone.

“We were just trying to work the ball in and out,” Argyle senior Jena Saalsaa said. “We were trying to find those driving lanes — I found some in the first half. In man (coverage) we ate them up a little bit, and that was our chance.”

The Orioles led 14-10 after Saalsaa converted a hoop-and-the-harm seven minutes into the game, but the Wildcats ran off an 11-2 run to take a 21-16 lead with 6:29 left in the half.

Argyle wouldn’t back down, with Kirsten Ostby and Alexis Leigh hitting triples that helped put the visiting Orioles back on top 26-23 with 4:12 remaining in the half. But again, Belleville ran off a short 7-0 run of its own to regain momentum. The Wildcats led 34-29 at the break.

The second half was all Wildcats. Belleville scored the first eight points coming out of the locker room. The biggest key was the transition offense. Whenever an Oriole shot went up, a Wildcat dashed across the half-court line. Belleville senior Rachael Heittola, who dominated the boards and the paint, played quarterback much of the second half, launching touchdown passes to the likes of Jayden Halvensleben, Ava Foley and Erin Kittleson.

“Transition, transition, transition — that’s what we need to work on,” Saalsaa said. “Transition was the biggest thing tonight, that’s how they got most of their points.”

Allison agreed. “That was a little disheartening for me and for the kids. We’ve got a lot of work yet to do and things to keep working on.”

When the cherry-picking offensive attack was stifled, it was Heittola who took over herself. Finishing with 23 points, Heittola scored 15 points in the second half.

“She’s a really good player, and she’s really big. I think we handled her pretty well, except when we played man against her — that was probably one of the biggest mistakes we made,” Saalsaa said.

Jenna Shrader, Sophia Grady, Foley and Holvensleben each finished with 10 points — giving the Wildcats five players in double figures. Saalsaa scored 13 to lead Argyle, while Alysabeth Lantz and Ostby each scored nine.

Part of the problem in the second half for Argyle was foul trouble to key players. Both senior Alysabeth Lantz and freshman Tori Lantz picked up early fourth fouls and either sat on the bench for much of the half or were phased out against the bigger, more physical Heittola for fear of fouling out.

“Everything kind of centers around those two girls. And when I don’t have them in, it’s really difficult for us to run our offense and to make that inside run like we were trying to do all night,” Allison said. “That Heittola girl is a heck of a ballplayer, I’ll tell you that. She’s got a height advantage on us and they took it to us.”

Free throws also doomed the Orioles, which hit just 9 of 20 attempts from the charity stripe, including a discouraging 4-for-11 performance in the second half. Argyle also hit just five field goals in the second half.

“Our offense was so helter skelter. It was frustrating on the sideline, because I can’t put it in for them or tell them when to shoot every possession,” Allison said. “We’re going to fine-tune some things, and we’ve got to if we want to stay competitive the rest of the season.”