DARLINGTON — The Redbirds capped the first half of their SWAL season with their biggest test yet. Cuba City took the 25-minute drive to Darlington on Jan. 10, bringing a team the Redbirds’ head coach Mike Flanagan wishes his squad to emulate in the future, as hosting Darlington fell 58-34.

Although the second-ranked Cubans (12-1, 7-0) roared to as much as a 35-point advantage late in the second half, the Redbirds (8-5, 5-2) looked to hang with the punches against the defending state runners-up in the opening minutes.

Darlington rebounded its own miss from outside the arc, with the ball landing in Lylah Norgard’s hands. She fired a shot just inside the arc along the baseline, earning the first points of the contest at 16:26. Cuba City answered with a turnaround jumper 12 seconds later. The back-and-forth affair kept its pace as Sadie Goebel fired a baseline three with her back to the Cuban bench.

Cuba City downed a pair of free throws on a Redbirds shooting foul, followed by a fastbreak two to flip the lead in its favor, 6-5. Then, after three buckets over four possessions, the Cubans owned a 13-5 advantage. They didn’t look back. Flanagan attributes much of Cuba City’s offensive success to its balance.

“They have a very balanced team,” he said. “They have a great combination of perimeter and post play that makes them difficult to guard. If an opponent puts too much emphasis on stopping their inside game, they make them pay from the outside. The same is true if an opponent focuses too much on defending the edge — they have the length and size to score in the paint.”

Despite falling 14 points shy of its season average, Darlington’s usual scoring leaders showed up for the team — albeit to a lesser extent. Maddie Gratz, Catie Hartwig, and Lilly Ritchie all led with seven points apiece. Goebel followed with six points — a pair of 3-pointers.

“We knew it would be tough, but if we are going to achieve anything this season, we need to find ways to emulate what a team like Cuba City brings to the table,” Flanagan said. “Every time we were out of position or late on a rotation, they made us pay. We need to find a way to get all players working together, with our leaders showing the way.”

Adjustments will need to be made on the fly with a quick turnaround at a third ranked opponent in a row coming on Jan. 14 — No. 7 Platteville (11-1).

“With a tough stretch like this one — Mineral Point, Cuba City, and Platteville — it is up to us to learn some things about ourselves and to use the competition to make us better,” Flanagan said. “We are about to start the second round of conference play, and we told the girls in the locker room that teams only get better or worse as the season goes by. There’s no such thing as staying the same, because if we are not progressing and other teams are getting better, we are getting worse by comparison. I look forward to seeing what our players can do in this second half of the regular season.”