The Wallkill girls’ basketball team jumped ahead and then found themselves having to hold on for dear life.

The Panthers built a double-digit lead after the first three quarters of play and then were outscored by 10 points in the fourth, but managed to hang on for a 45-38 non-league win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks on Wednesday.

“We got some things accomplished and did some stuff that we worked on yesterday,” Wallkill coach A.J. Higby said. “There’s a first.

We had a concerted effort on how we wanted to play and we did it well.”

The Panthers excelled defensively in the first half, frustrating the Newburgh offense and limiting the Goldbacks to 11 points. The offense, however, managed to put up 12 points in the first quarter, but only managed eight in the second.

But the offense came to life and blew that nine-point lead out to 17.

Maddison Dembroski scored the first four points of the quarter and Emma Spindler scored six of her game-high 13 points in the third quarter as Wallkill took a 36-19 lead after three quarters.

Jordyn Detz hit Wallkill’s lone 3-point bucket in the third quarter.

“We showed some patience,” Higby said. “We took some time and got some good looks. When you get the good looks in close, then those ones on the outside look that much easier.”

The Panthers built a 20-point lead, but Newburgh’s Nyah Williams knocked down a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the third quarter to cut the lead to 17 points.

The Goldbacks kept chipping away at the lead in the fourth quarter.

Payton Mullarkey scored her three points to start the Newburgh comeback attempt, starting a 9-0 run to pull the Goldbacks to within 9 points.

With 41 seconds in the game, Newburgh’s McKenzie Vondras hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to seven points.

“That’s us starting to relax,” Higby said. “We started to look at the scoreboard and we definitely started playing like we had a big lead. That you can’t do. You’ve got to continue to play.”

The Panthers left Newburgh on Wednesday needing two victories to qualify for the Section 9 Class A tournament. They were scheduled to host Highland on Friday and Pine Bush on Monday.

They are scheduled to finish the regular season with road games at Marlboro and Highland on Thursday and Tuesday.

They’re a good young group of basketball players,” Higby said. “We are OK.”