HANOVER – The streak has been snapped.

For the first couple weeks of the season, the Cape Cod Tech girls basketball team was among the best in the Mayflower Athletic Conference. During their streak, the Crusaders boasted a stingy defense and saw multiple girls contribute offensively to help the team open the season with a 5-0 record.

Cape Tech’s pursuit of a perfect season was halted Friday when first-half struggles were too much to overcome in a 51-30 defeat at South Shore Vocational Tech.

“We just have to come out and play two halves strong,” Cape Tech’s first-year coach Nick Conti said. “In the second half, we did a very good job. We switched up our style and our ways and we really played hard. The first half was a lot of nerves.”

The first half was as rough of a start as the Crusaders (5-1) have encountered all season. The host Vikings (8-1) held them scoreless in the first quarter, jumping out to a double-digit advantage after outscoring Tech 10-0 in the opening eight minutes.

Although Cape Tech scored in the second quarter, the team went into the locker room facing a 22-5 deficit and a tall hill to climb.

Despite leaving Hanover with a loss, the Crusaders managed to build some momentum in the final two quarters, starting with a 12-point third quarter that cut South Shore’s lead to 37-17.

Senior Jada Miranda led the second-half surge by scoring all 12 off her points off four 3-pointers that came following intermission. Her cousin, fellow senior Lashae Miranda, finished with seven points after scoring all five of the team’s points in the first half.

Conti said that the team has plenty it can take away from the loss, even if the second-half scoring wasn’t enough to complete a comeback. The coach believes his team can shore up its play by making some basic tweaks, including being stronger with the ball after a turnover-filled loss.

“We have a lot to build on,” Conti said. “We just have to have girls being dedicated to make the really basic plays. They’re really good, I just think they got really nervous and were shaken a little bit. In the second half, their nerves came off and they started playing like a team.”

Defensively, Tech struggled to contain South Shore’s Abby Pattison, who led all scorers with 16 points, but South Shore coach Allen Burns said he was much more pleased with his team’s defense than its offense.

“We looked up and saw the 51 and said that’s fantastic, but the bigger thing is the 30,” Burns said, “When you can hold anyone to 30 in a big league game, that’s a fantastic effort by our girls’ defense. We had talked about it all week and we’re really focused on defense this year.”

Conti and Tech aren’t going to let the thought of their first loss linger for too long. The rookie coach said the team will put it behind them and look forward to what is to come.

“This won’t define us,” Conti said. “We’re going to go stronger because of this. We’re going to turn a page and make it happen. They know what they’re capable of now.”

Email Brad Joyal at brad@capecodchronicle.com. Twitter: @BradJoyal