They made it intersting, but couldn’t pull it off.

The Austin boys basketball team couldn’t finish a late rally in a 64-59 loss to Red Wing in Ove Berven Gym Wednesday.

The Packers trailed 58-48 with j2:30 left in the game, but Joey Swatfager hit two threes and T.J. Fritz added another triple to close the gap to 60-59 with 20 seconds left. Red Wing hit two free throws to make it 62-59 with 11 seconds left and Austin traveled on it’s next possession.

Swatfager, a senior guard in his first year on varsity, scored 14 points and hit four of his eight three-point attempts.

“The nerves have worn off so far for me. I need to step up and I was glad I hit a couple tonight,” he said.

Austin (1-3 overall) had a chance to tie the game when Connor Gunderson missed a baseline three with 41 seconds left in the game and the Packers hit just 32 percent of their field goals and missed 21 threes on the night.

“The bottom line is we’ve got to shoot the ball better. We went into this season thinking we were going to be good shooting team,” Austin head coach Kris Fadness said. “I would sure like to do some things differently down the stretch than what I did, but you can’t go back. But we put ourselves in a bad spot to have to scramble in the last two minutes.”

Austin took 31 of its 66 field goal attempts from the perimeter as the Wingers shut down the lane throughout the night.

“We talked about playing inside-out,” Fadness said. “The problem was we had a tough time getting it in the paint because they were playing a collapsing man-to-man. They were sitting in the lane most of the game. It was tough to get curl cuts and it was tough to get penetration.”

Red Wing handled Austin’s pressure as it had just 14 turnovers and the Wingers shot 47 percent from the field.

“I thought Red Wing played really well,” Fadness said. “They came out with a purpose and they really attacked our zone press early in the game and got the ball to the middle. They really took us out of our game defensively.”

The Packers broke off an 11-3 run early in the second half to take a 40-37 lead after a three by Swatfager with 13:01 left in the game, but the Wingers made more plays down the stretch.

Jacob Brehmer, who had nine points and eight rebounds, and Gunderson, who had 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists, both fouled out as Austin was called for 25 fouls compared to Red Wing’s 13 fouls.

Red Wing 30 34 — 64

Austin 26 33 — 59

Austin scoring: Joey Swatfager, 14; Connor Gunderson, 13; T.J. Fritz, 10; Jake Brehmer, 9; Andrew Kaiser, 7; Tim Erickson, 3; Zach Fadness, 3; field goals: 32 percent (21-for-66); three-pointers: 32 percent (10-for-31); free throws: 54 percent (7-for-13); rebounds: 38 (Gunderson, 9; Brehmer, 8); turnovers: 17

Red Wing scoring: Pat Kelly, 22; Isaac Sevlie, 12; Coleman Kelly, 10; Colin Quinn, 7; Dylan Gorman, 2; Mitch Earney, 2; Evan Malmquist, 2; Zach Tubbs, 1; field goals: 47 percent (21-for-45); three-pointers: 47 percent (7-for-15); free throws: 50 percent (15-for-30); rebounds: 28 (Quinn, 8); turnovers: 14