Ben Lippen’s Clayton Hunt shoots over Trinity’s Dalon Edwards.
The Ben Lippen Falcons battled the top seed in the lower bracket, Trinity Collegiate, to the end in the SCISA 3A quarterfinals in Sumter February 24, but they came up just short losing to the Titans 55-52.
Tre’ McLeod led a balanced attack for the Titans with 12 points. Lebron Thomas added 11, and Bewan Balle Bonza chipped in ten. Griffin Folse finished with nine, Dalon Edwards had eight, and Bessanty Saragba rounded out the Trinity scoring with five.
Clayton Hunt paced the Falcons with a game-high 20 points. Ross Hartzog was right behind him with 19. The other Ben Lippen scorers included Porter Stanley with six, Beltran Portugues Huertas with five, and Carter Moorer with two.
The Falcons grabbed early leads of 5-0 and 11-6 with 3-pointers from Hartzog and Huertas to go with five points from Hunt, but Bonza got four straight and Edwards completed a drive for Trinity. Ben Lippen countered with two free throws each from Moorer and Huertas to lead 15-12 after one quarter of play.
The Titans started the second with a 7-0 run getting four from McLeod and a drive from Folse to take their first lead of the day at 19-15. Hunt cut into the Trinity lead with three points, and then Edwards and Hartzog traded 3-pointers before Thomas hit 1-of-2 free throws to set the Titans lead at 23-21 going into halftime.
The Falcons tied the score twice two minutes into the third quarter, and then the wheels fell off a bit as they got outscored 12-2 down the stretch. Folse led the way for Trinity with two buckets down low and then a dunk all in succession. Hunt drew a goaltending call on the Titans, but Bonza’s tip-in at the buzzer set Trinity’s advantage at 37-27 going into the final eight minutes.
Ben Lippen’s Ross Hartzog tries to get a shot by Trinity’s Griffin Folse.
Ben Lippen crawled its way back into the game in the fourth quarter with its trademark sharpshooting. Hartzog hit three 3-pointers, and Hunt drained two to cut the Titans’ lead to 48-46 with a minute left in the game. Trinity responded with a drive from Thomas and two free throws from Bonza to push their advantage to five with 36 seconds remaining, but Hunt converted an “and 1,” and Stanley sank a couple of free throws to cut the Falcon deficit to 53-52 with 18.1 seconds to play. Thomas then hit a couple of free throws to push the Titans’ lead to three with 12.8 seconds remaining.
The Falcons took possession but were forced to call a timeout with 4.7 seconds remaining. They got a contested shot off behind the 3-point line, but it fell short at the buzzer.
The Titans will meet Augusta Christian in Friday’s semifinal in Sumter at 4 p.m. The Lions advanced with a dramatic three-point win of their own over First Baptist.
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