The Ottawa boys basketball squad held a four-point lead over Pontiac at halftime of Friday’s game at the Dean Riley “Shootin’ the Rock” Thanksgiving Tournament at Kingman Gym.

But in the second half the Pirates turned the ball over 12 times, leading to 16 Indians’ points and allowing Pontiac to claim a two-point lead with under a minute to play.

From there, Ottawa misfired on a pair of potential lead-taking 3-point shots, the final attempt coming with two seconds remaining, and fell short in a 49-45 loss to finish the event 2-1.

Saturday’s scheduled games were canceled due to the expected snowstorm.

“On both those [late-game] possessions, we got the shot we wanted and the guy shooting it that we wanted,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “The shots just didn’t go down for us.

“That said, we didn’t lose the game on those two shots. We turned the ball over way too many times in the second half, and I’m guessing half if not more were wide-open layups going the other way. When we had a chance to set our defense tonight, I thought we made things pretty tough for Pontiac to get good looks, but the live-ball turnovers just killed us.

“These first three games showed us our ceiling for being a pretty good team is high, but we have work to do to get there.”

Pontiac (3-0) held a 7-6 lead after a sluggish opening quarter in which each side hit just 2-of-10 from the field.

The second period was the exact opposite, as the teams combined to make good on 15-of-26 attempts, with the Pirates holding a 27-23 advantage at the intermission.

Trailing by three with six minutes remaining in the fourth, the Indians used an 8-0 run —an old-fashioned three-point play and layup by Cayden Masching, then a triple by Evan Wolf — to take a 45-40 lead.

Ottawa closed to within two twice, once on a trey by Rory Moore with 1:13 to go and again on an Owen Sanders layup with 58 seconds left. The latter, however, was the Pirates’ final bucket of the night.

Sanders led Ottawa with 15 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Moore and Hezekiah Joachim (seven rebounds) each scored seven points. Dom Parks had six points on a pair of 3-pointers.

The Pirates hit 19-of-45 [42%] from the field and outrebounded Pontiac 29-26, but lost the turnover battle 15-10.

Pontiac was led by Masching’s game-high 18 points, with Wolf posting 10 points and Amazin King chipping in nine.

“Our defense in the second half was really good,” Pontiac coach Matt Starker said. “The group we had out there to start the second half was really able to give us a nice spark, and we were able to hold onto that energy to the end.

“We were able to convert a number of turnovers into quick points, especially early in the fourth quarter. I think we were down as many as six points a couple of times in the third quarter, but the guys were able to make things happen on the defensive end.

“It just seemed like when we needed to make a play, we did.”

Ottawa returns to action Tuesday with a game at Sandwich.