VERSAILLES – The Versailles Tigers fell victim to a last second tip-in falling 61-59 to the visiting Russia Raiders in non-conference play. The teams came into the night with identical 2-5 records.
“We just didn’t perform well enough tonight to warrant a victory,” said Versailles coach Travis Swank. “Our kids played hard at times – we didn’t play hard for four quarters. We need to be a more consistent team, we need to do better doing the right things out on the court.”
Versailles jumped out to a 16-8 lead before the Raiders hit a 3-point buzzer beater to close out first quarter play and trail the Tigers 16-11 with one period in the book.
Russia used a 13-11 second quarter to trail Versailles 27-24 with the teams heading to the halftime break.
“Our energy level was up, our focus was up,” Swank stated. “During the second quarter we lost all of those things.”
Period No. 3 had the Raiders extending its lead to 42-37 with 2:10 on the clock and taking the quarter by a 22-16 score to give the visitors a 46-43 advantage with one period to play.
Versailles knotted the score at 46-46 at 7:43 with the teams playing even over the remaining fourth quarter minutes. A Raiders basket with 0:22 remaining broke a 57-57 tie giving Russia a 59-57 a go-ahead lead.
Versailles sophomore Conner Stonebraker tied the game at 59-59 with a basket in the lane with 0:08 showing only to have Russia take advantage of a tip-in as time ran out giving the Raiders a 2 point win.
“Early on we shot real well but we also shot ourselves in the foot,” said Coach Swank. “We had a lot of bad decisions, balls being thrown out of bounds that weren’t near anybody, balls being thrown to guys that weren’t open and to the other team.”
“We have to take good care of the ball better,” Swank added. “If we can do that…we are shooting the ball well enough and getting easy looks that we’re going to score from but if you don’t take care of the ball, we’re not going to be nearly as successful scoring.”
Jaydon Litten led Versailles and all scorers with a game high 23 points.
Russia improves to 3-5 while Versailles falls to 2-6 on the season.
BOXSCORE:
RUSSIA 61, VERSAILLES 59
RUSSIA – B. Bohman 16, Q. Hayden 11, X. Philpot 8, Z. Shappie 7, B. Monnin 7, J. Bell 6, N. Caldwell 3, J. Meyer 3 – TOTALS 15 16-25 5 61
VERSAILLES – Jaydon Litten 21, T. Jones 9, J. DeMange 8, E. McEldowney 8, C. Stonebraker 6, Jacob Litten 3, C. McEldowney 2 – TOTALS 22 6-11 3 59
3-POINTERS
Russia 5 (Z. Shappie 2, N. Caldwell 1, J. Meyer 1, B. Monnin 1)
Versailles 3 (Jaydon Litten 2, T. Jones 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS:
11-13-22-15 61 Russia
16-11-16-16 59 Versailles
