Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Nicollet’s Leah Bode puts up a shot in the paint during a Valley Conference girls basketball game against Alden-Conger on Thursday at Nicollet High School.

NICOLLET — Despite Nicollet coming back from a double-digit deficit and taking a double-digit lead on Thursday, Alden-Conger got a comeback of its own late to snag a 61-56 win away from the Raiders in a Valley Conference girls basketball game.

Nicollet earned a 56-51 over Alden-Conger in conference action on Jan. 8 in Alden, but the Knights got payback on Thursday and snapped a four-game losing skid in the process.

The Knights were led by Macy Mattson’s 28 points, while Cearra Grunzke added 21.

Leah Bode led the Raiders with 20 points, 15 rebounds and five steals, while Jazmyn Goettlicher added 14 points and eight rebounds and Kamryn Truebenbach chipped in 9 points.

It was a game plagued by turnovers and missed offensive opportunities for both teams, but it was the Knights that pulled things together at the right time.

“It was tied at halftime, even though I think we could’ve had a bigger lead because we had a lot of good shots, they just weren’t falling in the paint,” Nicollet head coach Sarah Strobel said. “Halftime we came out, got a little bit of a lead and then we just kind of stalled offensively.”

The Raiders had another unwanted issue to deal with after starting guard Savannah Klockziem hurt her ankle in the opening minutes of the first half and was out the remainder of the half.

The Raiders trailed 9-7 when Klockziem went down with the injury, and despite Bode eventually giving the Raiders an 11-10 lead on a basket in the paint, Alden-Conger quickly got things back in its favor with a 13-1 run to lead 23-12.

The Raiders, who pressed early on before Klockziem got hurt, pressed again later in the half and got a steal for an and-one by Bode off that press to trail 25-17. Truebenbach and Goettlicher then each hit 3s to have the Raiders down 25-23, and a late 3 by Bode tied the game at 28-all at halftime.

“I was hoping to do that [press] more today, but then when Sav went down, we were kind of running out of gas, so we kind of changed the game plan that way,” Strobel said.

Klockziem returned to start the second half with her ankle taped, and the Raiders did some damage with her back on the floor. After Grunzke scored to start the second half, Truebenbach hit back-to-back 3s to put Nicollet up 34-30. Bode then got a steal for a layup and Klockziem added a layup to put Nicollet up 38-30.

Moments later, a Bode bucket inside had the Raiders up double digits, 42-32. But the Knights hung around and slowly chipped away at the Raiders’ lead before an 8-0 run had the Knights in front 50-48.

Alden-Conger then increased its lead to 61-52 with less than two minutes to play.

While Nicollet pressed again and got a 3 by Bode to trail 61-56 in the final minute, time ran out on the Raiders as they were unable to get any more shots to drop.

Nicollet (7-14, 5-9) hosts Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s in nonconference action on Monday, while Alden-Conger (7-16, 6-10) hosts Lyla/Austin Pacelli in nonconference action Friday.