Tartan Boys Basketball Suffers Heartbreaking 47-46 Loss in Section Finals

In a toughly fought Friday night section final game, the came up one basket short of going to the state tournament, losing to the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders 47-46 at East Ridge High School in Woodbury.

The first few possesions for both teams set the atmosphere for the game as Tartan and Cretin both answered each other in scoring, keeping the game close throughout the first 10 minutes of play. Tartan had some critical turnovers and missed free throws which Cretin-Derham Hall took advantage of to lead 27-22 at half.

In the second half Cretin-Derham Hall came out strong by hitting shots and forcing turnovers to increase their lead to 36-26 with 12 minutes left in the game.  However, Tartan did not give up and they were able to get back into the game by drawing fouls and causing Raijon Kelly, the leading scorer for Cretin-Derham Hall, to go to the bench with four fouls. With Kelly out of the game, Tartan was able to force turnovers and hit three consecuctive three-point shots to go up 40-36 with seven minutes left in the game.

Tartan continued to be patient on offense and draw fouls, but poor free throw shooting would be their downfall. With two minutes left, Raijon Kelly fouled out of the game, giving Tartan a great opportunity to seal the game. However, Tartan missed another high pressured free throw and the Titans still only held a one- possession, 46-43 lead. Cretin missed a three-point shot, but Tartan's Joel Awich was called for a controversial traveling violation as he came down with the rebound. With a little under a minute left the Raiders hit a two-point shot to make the score 46-45 in favor of Tartan.

Tartan would go to the line again with another chance to increase the lead, but a rare free throw miss by Luke Preiner kept the game at 46-45. With 30 seconds left, Cortez Tillman of Cretin scored a second-chance shot to give the Raiders a 47-46 point lead. The Titans held the ball until, with about 10 seconds left, Preiner made a great move to the basket for a layup. The final shot attempt could not have been more tense and heartbreaking for Tartan as the ball literally stopped for a second on the rim before falling out. The Titans were able to force a turnover to get another chance with one second left, but the long pass attempted was too high for Awich and the Raiders held on to win 47-46.

 Xavier Hall led the Titans with 12 points, making several clutch three-point shots, and Joel Awich added 11 points, which included an alley-oop and another dunk in the second half to re-energize the Titans. The Titans finished second-place in section 4AAAA.