ALBION — The Eisenhower Knights girls basketball program has come a long way in the past three seasons.

Monday night they got a look at where they want to be.

The Knights traveled to Northwestern, which was undefeated in Region 3 play and 18-0 overall heading into the game.

Eisenhower dropped the game 60-35, but Knights head coach DJ Steinberg believes that the loss will pay dividends down the road.

“Northwestern is a very good team, but honestly I’m proud of the way the girls played tonight,” he said. “They were playing hard, communicated well, and were patient on offense. Our pressure defense was good.”

The Knights found themselves in a hole at halftime, down 32-17, but came out of the break and held Northwestern to just 4 points in the third quarter. But Eisenhower managed to put up 8 points and was down 36-25 at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter belonged to Northwestern and Makayla Presser-Palmer, who had 9 points, as the Wildcats outscored Eisenhower 24-10 in the quarter.

While Presser-Palmer took high game scoring honors with 23 points, the knights were able to accomplish one of their goals heading into the game.

“We set out to hold Presser-Palmer to under 25 points, which we did,” Steinberg said. “I thought Laney Belcher did an outstanding job guarding her. They were hitting 3s tonight like they haven’t all season. It’s hard to defend when they have multiple players hitting them.”

Clara Steinberg led Eisenhower with 16 points. The Knights saw their Region 3 record fall to 6-5 and they are 14-5 overall.

Eisenhower is back in action Thursday when it hosts Iroquois for a 7 p.m. tip-off.

EISENHOWER (35)

Font 3 1 10, Childs 0 0 0, Belcher 3 0 7, Alcorn 1 0 2, Gates 0 0 0, Steinberg 5 3 16. Totals 12 4 35.

NORTHWESTERN (60)

Hurayda 3 0 8, Gorzynski 2 0 4, Presser-Palmer 8 5 23, Bucci 3 1 8, Wheeler 1 0 3, Eddy 0 0 0, Keith 5 0 14. Totals 24 6 60.

3-point goals–Font 3, Belcher, Steinberg 3, Hurayda 2, Presser-Palmer 2, Bucci, Wheeler, Keith 4..

Eisenhower 5 12 8 10 — 35

Northwestern 13 19 4 24 — 60