Panthers fall to unbeaten Haven, 45-37

HALSTEAD —A scoring drought of better than seven minutes was too much for the Concordia Panthers to overcome against the undefeated Haven Wildcats.
Peyton Retter knocked down a three-point shot with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter to give Concordia a 29-26 lead on Haven.
The Panthers would not score again until Payton Breese hit a three midway through the final period.
Top-seeded Haven tossed in 13 points during that stretch to take a 39-29 advantage, and overcame shaky free throw shooting in the final 1:20 to defeat fifth-seeded Concordia 45-37 in the semifinals of the 53rd Annual Adolph Rupp Invitational boys’ basketball tournament Friday night.
“They (Wildcats) are a good team. They really are. The kids fought hard, but once again that one stretch seems to get us in the second half. Against good teams you have got to not let that happen for us to be successful,” Concordia coach Derek Holmes said.
In the other semifinal game on Friday, second-seeded Andale downed Rose Hill, 50-39.
In what was a defensive struggle, the Panthers hung with a Haven team, ranked in the top five in Class 3A, for three and a half quarters.
Neither team shot the ball well in the game.
Concordia was 13 of 40 for 33 percent from the field and hit 7 of 25 three-point attempts for 28 percent.
“Their 1-3-1, they are really long in it. We worked on it for a few days, but it is hard to simulate that in practice with their length,” Holmes said. “We had 16 turnovers and they had four. Obviously, neither team shot the ball well from three.”
Haven was just 2 of 15 from three-point range for 13 percent and made just 5 of 15 free throws.
“Our zone gave them trouble also. They didn’t shoot it well. We were pretty active in our zone but we struggled to score,” Holmes said.
Trailing 6-2 early in the game, the Panthers held the Wildcats scoreless for nearly five minutes and got a three-point shot by Retter and a three-point play by Breese to go up 8-6 heading into the second quarter.
Haven used an 8-2 spurt in the first four minutes of the second period to reclaim the lead at 14-10.
The Panthers battled back to tie the game at 18-18.
Brant Sipe followed up a missed shot in the final seconds of the half to give Haven a 20-18 cushion.
Sipe scored the first two points of the second half, and Haven led 22-18.
Threes by Retter and Joey Henderson and a follow by Aceyn Cash put Concordia back on top, 26-22.
Baskets by Dalton Bontrager and Nash Wray pulled Haven even with the Panthers at 26-26.
Retter’s three gave Concordia a 29-26 advantage.
Haven scored the final six points of the third quarter and the first seven of the fourth to take its biggest lead of the game at 39-28.
A three by Breese ended the run and made it 39-32.
Sipe scored to put the Wildcats up 41-32.
Haven would miss on five straight free throw attempts in a span of just 58 seconds, but Concordia could get no closer than six points.
“A couple of made shots may have swung the momentum, we just weren’t able to knock them down in critical stretches,” Holmes said.
Breese, with 11 points, was the only Panther to score in double figures.
Retter finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Cash also scored nine points.
Sipe led Haven with 19 points.

CONCORDIA (37)
Henderson 1-0-5 3, Garcia 1-1-4 3, Retter 3-0-4 9, Cash 3-2-4 9, Breese 4-1-1 11, Turner 1-0-2 2. Totals: 13-4-20 37.
HAVEN (45)
B. Miller 2-0-1 6, Wray 1-0-2 2, Sipe 8-3-3 19, DJ Miller 3-0-2 6, Yoder 1-0-1 2, Rinehart 2-2-0 6, Bontrager 2-0-2 4. Totals: 19-5-11 45.