Late whistles benefitted both Warner and Keiser on Saturday.
LAKE WALES — Late whistles benefitted both Warner and Keiser on Saturday.
The Royals, who tied the game at 92 with four seconds left, got a break when the officials waved off a buzzer-beating shot by Seahawks’ guard Micah Goss. Keiser found itself on the good side of a late whistle five minutes later.
Trystan Pratapas drew a foul on A.J. Lamb with one second left in overtime and hit the go-ahead free throw to give the Seahawks a 98-97 win at the Turner Athletic Center.
“The officials found a way to intervene a little bit in the second half; they were much more a factor second half,” said Warner head coach Sean Hanrahan. “We’ve got to do a better job of recognizing that. We’ve struggled with that all year."
Adam Giger tied the game with a 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation, but as Goss came barreling down the court his shot was ruled to have been taken after the final horn.
Pratapas’ fateful drive in overtime came after Denzell Osson missed a potential winning 3-pointer. Lamb, the Royals’ big 7-footer, was unable to contest Pratapas’ shot without making body contact.
"It felt like whoever had the ball last was just going to win it," Hanrahan said.
Hanrahan mentioned the officials, but Warner (12-6, 5-4 TSC) sent Keiser (12-6, 7-2 TSC) to the line six times in the final two minutes of regulation and overtime. The Royals rallied from a seven-point deficit with seven minutes remaining.
“We always comeback late and rally back as a team,” said guard Nick Macon. “Everybody was hitting shots tonight — definitely 3-pointers. Lately our bigs have been carrying us and when you’ve got a guy like Deion (McClenton), he’s going to take the bigs out of the game, so, obviously, the guards had to step up.”
McClenton, the Seahawks’ star big man, had himself a game. The senior scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as he scored or assisted on Keiser’s last six points of regulation.
The Warner guards did step up. For the first time this season, both Macon and Melton Sanders heated up on the same night. Macon scored 31 points and handed out 11 assists while Sanders scored a season-best 35 points.
They combined for 43 of Warner’s 50 points in the second half as an 18-of-35 showing from 3-point range kept the Royals in the game.
“We made 18 threes, usually, if you’re going to make that many shots, you’re going to win the game,” Hanrahan said. “Free throws were big. They did a great job of getting to the line in the overtime. We fouled two times after going up by three.”
Sanders led the Royals with 14 points in the first half, but it was those 3-pointers that kept the game close. Keiser countered with 59 percent shooting but, between Sanders, Macon and Giger, Warner hung around.
Macon hit three triples while Giger added two more.
McClenton dominated the individual matchup against Royals’ big man Khalil Ozuna, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds as his Warner counterpart mustered just two points in the half.
Lamb gave Warner a boost with his defense against the smaller, albeit faster and more athletic, McClenton.
Keiser finished with a bang after Sanders was called for an intentional foul after reaching around from behind to stop a McClenton dunk. The big man hit one of two free throws and Marko Radulovic’s floater at the buzzer made it 46-42 at the half.