The Heritage Christian Academy boys’ basketball team let a win get away down the stretch Tuesday night, losing 52-50 to the visiting Lighthouse Eagles after leading for the majority of the game. With the loss, the Warriors have lost eight of their last nine and drop to 5-8 on the year.
Matt McGowan was coaching his first home game for HCA after Daryl Hallmark resigned as head coach Thursday.
The game began with Warriors’ junior Rajah Mills stepping to the free throw line and hitting one of two, the result of a pre-game technical foul called against Lighthouse for dunking in warmups after the referees were on the court. Back to back three pointers by junior Gavin Fowler gave the Warriors an 11-5 lead, and junior Josh Jones drilled a three to stretch the lead to 14-7 at the end of the opening quarter.
The Eagles opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run, before Warriors’ junior Dakota Brake scored off an assist from Fowler to make the score 16-13 with four minutes left in the half. Mills hit a floater with less than a minute to go, before Lighthouse scored 4 straight to cut the halftime lead to 23-21.
Fowler led the Warriors with 11 first-half points, followed by Brake with 4. Luke Imfield paced the Eagles with 11.
Lighthouse evened the score at 27 with 5:28 to play in the third quarter, before junior Dalton Folz scored on a pass from senior Kam Cunningham for a 33-30 Warrior lead with 1:15 left. Fowler scored on a drive, but the Warriors fouled and put the Eagles on the line with time expired on the third quarter. Lighthouse hit one of two and HCA led 35-33 going into the final frame.
A Folz bucket and foul with 5:29 to play pushed the Warrior lead to 42-38, but the Eagles went on a 12-0 run to open up the biggest lead of the game at 50-42. HCA answered with 5 straight points to pull to 50-47 with only a minute and a half to play. Lighthouse scored at the :35 mark to stretch the lead to 5, and two turnovers and a blocked three pointer forced the Warriors to put the Eagles at the line with :13.8 left. Lighthouse missed the front end of the one and one, and Heritage called a timeout with :5 left. Fowler hit a three pointer with :2.3 to play, and the Warriors called another timeout, only trailing 52-50. HCA sent the Eagles to the line where they again missed the first free throw, with the Warriors pulling down the rebound and calling an immediate timeout. With only :1.2 to work with, Heritage couldn’t get a good look and a long shot was too strong, giving the Eagles the 52-50 road win.
Fowler led the Warriors in scoring with 20, including 5 in the fourth quarter. Folz followed with 12, all in the second half and 7 in the fourth quarter. Mills and Jones both finished with 6, Brake had 4, and junior Austin Crawford had a basket. The Eagles’ Imfield led all scorers with 26, and Andrew Ditto scored 10.
Up next for the Warriors is a trip to Elizabethtown on Thursday to play the North Hardin Christian School (10-9). The Falcons play in the 2nd Region of the KCCA.