WATERLOO - The Cedar Rapids Kennedy girls seemed to be in full control for the opening four minutes of the second half against Waterloo West.

Then the game pivoted.

The Wahawks, suddenly finding the range from beyond the 3-point arc, rallied to beat the Cougars, 49-42, in a top-10 matchup of unbeaten teams at Siddens Gymnasium.

Now 5-1, seventh-ranked Kennedy hit its first five shots from the field to begin the third quarter and built a 30-21 lead. West, by contrast, went 0-for-8 from the field in that opening stretch.

Then the No. 3 Wahawks (6-0) heated up from the perimeter. They connected on five 3-point shots to close the third period, two each by Kate Letkewicz and Haley Puk, and Kennedy's lead dwindled to 38-36 at quarter's end.

The Cougars went ice cold in the fourth period.  They connected on just two of 11 tries in the last eight minutes.

West, on the the other hand, enjoyed Puk's fourth quarter. The Bowling Green-bound senior scored nine of her game-high 18 points down the stretch, including the trey with 5 minutes, 5 seconds left that put West up for good, at 41-38.

Kennedy Coach Tony Vis found no fault with the effort, an opinion he shared with his team in the postgame lockerroom.

"I told them that I thought we played hard enough," said Vis. "It wasn't a matter of effort. At times, it was about execution. At times, it was about turnovers. At times, it was about not blocking out and just kind of losing our poise and composure a little bit.

"It's a good early season test. I mean, (West) is No. 3 for a reason. We got a little bit of work to do yet."

Stephanie Botkin scored 15 points to lead Kennedy, which turned the ball over 19 times.

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (42): Madison Meier 1-5 0-0 2, Jordan Holmes 2-8 0-0 6, Paige Hendrickson 3-9 0-0 6, Stephanie Botkin 5-7 5-5 15, Morgan Martin 2-6 2-2 6, Mariah Vis 2-3 0-0 5, Sydney Hayden 0-0 0-0 0, Madison DeLong 0-0 0-0 0, Carly Langhurst 1-2 0-0 2, Brinley Milbrath 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-40 7-7 42.

WATERLOO WEST (49): Samantha Sproul 2-6 1-2 7, Makayla Stokes 3-5 0-0 6, Haley Puk 5-14 6-6 18, Kate Letkewicz 4-10 0-0 11, Blaire Thomas 2-6 3-6 7, Jaclyn Spencer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-42 10-14 49.

Kennedy          15    6  17    4 - 42
West               11  10  15  13 - 49

3-point goals - Kennedy 3 (Holmes 2, Vis 1) West 7 (Sproul 2, Puk 2, Letkewicz 3). Total fouls - Kennedy 16, West 13. Fouled out - none.