After trailing by as many as 16 points to the Wyoming East Warriors late in the game, the Tug Valley Panthers rallied and took a 5-point lead, only to lose the semifinal match in the final seconds, 67-63.
The Panthers led 63-58 with 54 seconds left in the game when Nathan Brewer was fouled. Brewer went to the line for the bonus, but missed the front end and Wyoming East got the rebound.
Then, with 47 seconds left, Chase Morgan hit a fade-away 3-pointer that made it 63-61.
Following a timeout by the Warriors, Evan Muscari got the steal and took it in for a layup that tied the game at 63 with just 38 seconds left.
The Panthers’ Cody Varney was fouled and went to the line for one and the bonus, but missed the front end and Wyoming East again got the rebound. But, a traveling call on Wyoming East gave the ball back to Tug Valley with 14.3 seconds left in the game.
As Tug Valley’s Channing Preece ran the ball down the court, he was trapped near the Wyoming East bench and appeared to be knocked out of bounds, but, as he fell across the line, he tried to save the ball by throwing it off a Warrior defender. The ball, however, bounced off the leg of a Wyoming East player and into the hands of another.
With 10.4 seconds remaining, Morgan was fouled by Austin Vance. Morgan hit both free throws to give Wyoming East a 65-63 lead and on the inbounds play, Muscari stole the ball and was fouled. He then made both free throws to put the game out of reach.
“They gave us a tough way to go in the first half, but we kept battling to get back in the game and we finally caught them and got the lead,” Tug Valley coach Garland Thompson said. “But, we made a couple bad mistakes right there late. I’m proud of my kids. They played hard. I know they’re hurting right now, but the sun will rise tomorrow.”
The Panthers finished the season as a Final Four team with a 17-6 record, while Wyoming East advanced to another state championship game with a record of 22-2.
“That was a good basketball game, classic, wire-to-wire,” Thompson said.
Preece said the Panthers were just trying to maintain the lead and run the time off the clock in the final seconds of the game.
“We had it tied up with 14 seconds to go and I fooled around and lost the ball at the end,” Preece said. “They play hard-nose defense.” Thompson said Wyoming East’s pressure was very intense.
“They get a deflection and a steal and then a basket,” Thompson said. “To win in the tournament, you have to execute and take care of the basketball. We missed a couple of foul shots there and they came down and scored at the end. It can get away from you so quick.”
Thompson praised his team for their effort.
“I wanted to win this game and I know our kids wanted to win this game,” he said. “I know they’re feeling bad right now, but, they’ll be successful in everything they do. I don’t want them to think they’ve had a bad tournament, because they haven’t. These guys have won a lot of games. They’ve won three sectionals and two regionals, a game in the tournament last year and we advanced to the Final Four and there are a lot of teams in West Virginia who would like to be where we are. I know it hurts right now, but I’ve got good kids and they’ll learn from their mistakes and I’ll learn from my mistakes. I am proud of them. I know it hurts, but they’ll be fine.
“Wyoming East is a good basketball team and they’re well coached and I’m sure they will be right back here next year. The Muscari kid hit shot after shot and Chase Morgan hit a couple big foul shots late. They are a very good basketball team.”
The Panthers fell behind 8-0 to start the game and trailed 15-3 near the mid-point of the first quarter, but got a free throw from Michael Evans, a layin by layin by Mason Pack and a putback from Nathan Brewer to cut it to 15-8 with 1:31 left in the frame. Wyoming East’s Alex Webb scored from under the bucket to make it 17-8, but Brewer got a steal and a pullup jumper with 29 seconds to go in the period to make it 17-10 heading into the second quarter.
The Warriors outscored Tug Valley 18-9 in the first five and a half minutes of the second quarter and went ahead by as many as 16, 35-19, on a Marcus Schofield shot at the 2:33 mark.
But Tug battled back and went on an 8-2 scoring run that cut the Warriors’ lead to 10, 37-27, at the intermission.
The Panthers then outscored Wyoming East 19-12 in the third quarter to cut their deficit to 49-46 heading into the fourth.
Tug tied the game at 50 on a Pack back-door dunk at the 6:35 point and took its first lead of the game on a shot from under the basket by Brewer off an assist by Preece with 4:13 left in the game.
Muscari reclaimed the lead for the Warriors with a 3-pointer that made it 53-52, but Preece nailed a 3 of his own to give the lead back to Tug at 55-53, with 3:33 left. Muscari missed a 3-point attempt and Pack grabbed the rebound and seven seconds later, Vance scored a layin to make it 57-53 with 3:13 remaining.
Morgan cut the Panthers’ lead to one with a trey, but Vance got a steal and a wide-open layup to make it 59-56 with 2:23 left.
Muscari scored on a back-door layin to make it 59-58, but Vance hit another layin to give Tug a 3-point advantage at 61-58.
Vance then gave Tug a 5-point lead at 63-58 with a layin off a dish from Preece at the 1:16 mark.
With 59 second to go, Muscari pulled up for a shot and missed and Brewer reeled in the errant shot. He was fouled and went to the line, missing the front end of the one-and-one.
Wyoming East rebounded and scored to cut it to 63-61, and then tied the game on a Muscari layin and took the lead with two free throws from Morgan and iced the victory with the final two foul shots by Muscari.
Preece led the Panthers with 19 points. He also gave six assists, got two steals and two rebounds. Brewer scored 13 points and yanked down 14 rebounds. He also gave two assists and got a steal.
Pack scored 13 points, grabbed five rebounds, blocked four shots, gave an assist and got a steal. Vance scored 10 points, gave five assists, got two steals and pulled down two rebounds.
Cody Varney scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, gave one assist and got a steal. Evans netted three points, grabbed five rebounds, blocked one shot and got a steal.
The Panthers outrebounded Wyoming East 35-28.
Wyoming East committed only 13 turnovers in the game, while Tug coughed the ball up 23 times.
Wyoming East outscored Tug Valley 27-15 off turnovers.
Tug Valley outscored Wyoming East 36-22 from the paint, 16-10 on putbacks, 16-7 on the fast break and 5-2 from bench points.
The lead changed four times and the game was tied twice.
At the foul line, Tug Valley made just 11-of-18 free throws for 61.1 percent shooting, while the Warriors made 20-of-24 for 83.3 percent.
Attendance for the game was 7,356.
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