WALPOLE — Although he probably wished otherwise, Walpole girls basketball coach Dave Wall knew his team’s large halftime lead Wednesday night against Bishop Feehan was probably too good to be true.

And, predictably, Feehan began chipping away in the third quarter.

But Walpole leaned on its senior leadership, withstood Feehan’s shot, and answered the adversity like a champion to hold on for a 44-33 win in a nonleague tussle between two of the best teams in the state.

Walpole improves to 8-1, while Feehan lost for the first time this season to drop to 8-1. Both squads have legitimate state title aspirations, Walpole in Div. 2, Feehan in Div. 1.

“Any time you’re playing a great team, and that’s what Feehan is, I said at halftime, ‘They’re going to make their run. That’s what happens,’ ” Wall said. “Two good teams, there’s going to be runs, both sides. It’s kind of … don’t panic. With six seniors, they didn’t panic. They stepped up when I needed them the most.”

One senior who stepped up in that fourth quarter was Brooke Walonis. After a Charlotte Adams-Lopez 3-pointer cut the Walpole lead to its lowest point since the second quarter (34-28), Walonis swished a straightaway triple, then made a nice cut and layup to help push the lead to 41-28. The lead was never under double digits the rest of the way.

“This game meant a lot to us,” said Walonis, who led all scorers with 15 points. “I think it was kind of a measuring stick, and we just wanted to put it away at the end. Our defense was awesome all game, and we wanted to make sure they weren’t going to go on a late run and just finish it.”

Walpole’s defense was indeed awesome. The Timberwolves effectively shut off everything in the lane in the first half, and Feehan missed all 10 of its 3-pointers as Walpole built a 22-8 lead at the break.

But Feehan’s run came in that third quarter. Madelyn Steel scored all nine of her points in that quarter, including six straight as Feehan sliced the deficit to 34-25 by the fourth.

But Walpole had a balanced effort, as Bella Bingham had eight points, Izzy Adams had 10 and five rebounds, and Grace Ryan hit two big second-half threes.

As big of a win as this was, Wall did not want to put too much stock in it.

“It’s way too early. The way we looked at it, and it’s the honest-to-God truth, where’s the pressure?” Wall said. “With the power seedings, neither one of us was going to go too high or too low based off a win or loss. I looked at it as a really good thing for girls basketball, to be honest with you. This place was jammed out. That’s pretty cool. Two really good teams, people were invested. We got to measure ourselves against them. Do I think we’re (11) points better than them? No, I don’t. But, tonight, we played hard and pulled it out. I’m proud of my kids.”