The Hopkins girls’ varsity basketball team Friday night dropped into a tie for first place in O-K Silver Conference standings by suffering a 56-42 loss at NorthPointe Christian.

Later in the evening, the Viking boys lost a 59-58 heartbreaker to the Mustangs at the buzzer. Their season season record is now 11-6 (5-5 in the O-K Silver). NorthPointe improved its second place record to 8-2.

The Lady Vikings kept it close throughout the early going, trailing by just one point, 22-21 at intermission, but NorthPointe began to pull away in the second half.

Hopkins a week ago had a two-game lead over everybody else in the league after winning its first eight contests in the Silver. But then losses Tuesday in overtime to Calvin Christian and again Friday night have deadlocked the top spot. The two teams now are 8-2 in league play and Calvin Christian is closing in on third place.

Hopkins, now 12-6 overall, will try to stop its recent skid, losing three of its last four, at Kelloggsville Tuesday night. The boys will play the Rockets at home.