Trojans withstand Prospectors late rally to reach tourney finale
DILLON – The Granite Prospectors put on a furious fourth-quarter rally, but the Trojans found a way to hold them off and punch their ticket into the District 12C Tournament final Saturday at 6 p.m.
Drummond will play No. 1 seeded Twin Bridges, who beat Ennis 68-38 in their semifinal, in the championship.
Granite falls into the consolation bracket and will play Sheridan at 9:30 a.m. The winner will face the survivor of the Lima-Ennis game for the consolation championship, while the loser is eliminated. Should the Prospectors win out and Twin Bridges lose to the Trojans in the tournament finale, Granite could force a play-in game
Drummond jumped out to an early lead and hit the gas, holding a 42-16 advantage after three periods. But that’s when the Prospectors offense finally woke up, using a 24-7 run to close the gap and almost complete and stellar comeback. The run was led by eighth-grader Brett Grange who scored his team high 14 points all in the final period.
“(The) boys played a very good game tonight,” said Drummond Head Coach Levi Parsons. “Rebounded hard, played good defense and took care of the ball.
“We had a pretty good lead going into the 4th quarter and so I put my younger players, which didn't pan out as well as I thought. That second group just wasn’t ready mentally and we allowed Pburg to cut into our lead. I waited too long but ended up putting a couple starter's back in and that senior leadership was able to pull us through.”
Seniors Jonah Parke and Luke Holland led Drummond with 19 and 10 respectively.
“We needed to play our best basketball game of the season tonight and that didn't happen,” said Prospector Head Coach Dustin Keltner. “Drummond's seniors played disciplined and hard. They deserved to win the game.
“Our young kids played a terrific fourth quarter. Those kids live in the gym and they play to win. The future is bright for Prospector basketball. We will regroup and get after it tomorrow.”
SCORING
DRUMMOND – 11/15/16/7 – 49
GRANITE – 4/10/2/24 – 40
Drummond – JParke 19, Holland 10, CParke 8, Allen 5, Rigby 4, Wagner 1
Granite – Grange 14, Ward 8, Tallon 5, Cutler 4, AMetesh 3, Brabender 2, O’Donnell 2, Parret 2
