One bad end was all it took. 

With hammer in the eighth end of Tuesday's round-robin game against China, the U.S. had a wide open four-foot. All Danny Casper had to do was draw to the button. 

His shot, though, glided way too fast and floated into the eight-foot, allowing China to steal three and take a commanding 5-2 lead in a defensive game with just two ends remaining.

Even though the U.S. got it back in the ninth, the steal gave China hammer in the 10th, and they took advantage on the way to an 8-5 victory over Team USA.

Casper's sweepers took the blame for the miscue at the end of the eighth.

"It was a bit of a misread by Ben (Richardson) and I on the sweep there," said U.S. third Aidan Oldenburg. "Because he threw it good enough to make it and it’s our job as sweepers to make that draw for him in the eighth."

Casper made up for it in the ninth. With his team lying two rocks in the back of the house behind just one Chinese stone that was all alone, Casper took that stone out to give his team three and even the score going into the final end.

The comeback attempt ended in the 10th, though. Needing a steal for the win, the Americans were unable to get stones built up in the house. Sitting one in the eight foot, Casper's final throw again came up short, and both rocks were taken out on Xu Xiaoming's hammer throw, giving China three in the 10th for the win.

"I knew we had to go all out for the steal and put some rocks in good spots, and we just weren't sharp enough with those a couple first rocks," Oldenburg said.

The teams traded single points in the early parts of the match. The U.S. was up 2-1 at the fifth-end break.

With the loss, the U.S. falls to 4-3 and into a tie with Great Britain for 4th in the men's standings. The top four teams at the end of round-robin play advance to the semifinals.

"You want to win this to set us up for playoff position, but we're going to reset and go get it tonight," Oldenburg said. "We have two games left in round-robin, so every game counts at this point. We’re feeling a little down right now, obviously because we just lost, but we’re hoping to reset and get after."

The Americans will be back on the ice at 1:05 p.m. ET to take on Italy.

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