GARDNER — A wacky scheduling fiasco pitted the Mahar B summer basketball team against Conant on Wednesday night, with Conant winning 57-13.

Mahar B was originally slated to face Murdock at 7 p.m. but that changed to playing Narragansett at 5 p.m., only for Mahar B to be surprised to face Conant because Narragansett could not make it.

“They’re the best team we’ve seen and we’ve seen them twice,” said Mahar B coach Pat Kaltner. “Our girls looked and we weren’t supposed to play them but the other team didn’t show, so our girls looked at them and said ‘These girls again.’ We could have just laid down, but they stepped up and played to their ability.”

The Mahar B team consists of players in grades 6-8. Conant was much taller and bigger, largely reflecting its varsity roster.

Mahar B couldn’t do much offensively because of that mismatch. Although the team came out of the gate with a 4-2 lead, they quickly gave up 14 straight points, going down 16-4. Conant took a 24-9 lead going into halftime and outscored Mahar B, 33-4, in the second half.

“Same thing every game, we can’t go inside,” said Kaltner about the offensive efforts. “We have no post presence at all, although defensively I loved the way our bigs were bodying up with them.”

Conant had an extreme size advantage against Mahar B, as most teams do. But Mahar B’s Haylee Allen matched up well against most, providing four blocks and five rebounds. She anchored the team’s defensive efforts that saw an uptick in performance from its previous game against Quabbin. Mahar B generated 24 total rebounds against Conant and only 16 against Quabbin.

“Haylee Allen played really well against tough competition,” said Kaltner. “But our shots aren’t dropping and we’ve got no inside presence.”

Ava Liberty scored a team-high six points and had four rebounds. She scored her team’s first second-half points on a jumper with 10 minutes and 23 seconds left in the half. The basket ended a 12-0 Conant run to start the second half, building a 36-9 lead before Liberty hit her jumper.

Natalie Belloli turned a steal into an easy layup for Mahar B’s only other basket in the second half. Conant outscored Mahar B 21-2 in the game’s final 10 minutes.

Kendra Doane added five points for Mahar B along with four rebounds. Sienna Moore had five rebounds, while Belloli had three and Alivia Patch two.