End of the road for Keenan boys. Raiders fall to Fox Creek in Lower State finals
Keenan boys basketball’s quest for state history will have to wait one more season.
Fox Creek knocked off the Raiders, 75-68, in the Class 3A Lower State championship at the Florence Center on Saturday.
The Predators advanced to their first championship game and will play Christ Church for the title at 4 p.m. Friday at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia. It is Fox Creek’s second championship appearance. The Predators lost to Burke in 2015.
The loss denied Keenan a chance at its second straight state championship and opportunity for its 11th state title, which would have tied Great Falls for the most in state history.
It also ends an up-and-down year which included not having head coach Zach Norris on the bench this season. Norris was at Saturday’s game, watching in the second level of the Florence Center.
Norris has been at practice since last month but hasn’t coached a game this season as he’s held out because of S.C. High School League sanctions that followed a rules violation over the summer. The penalties for the Keenan program were a suspension for Norris for the first half of the season (13 games), his not being allowed to coach in the playoffs, and the team having to play its playoff games on the road.
The school and district didn’t recognize any games served toward the suspension until Norris was officially back as a full-time employee. Norris was technically retired, and the school didn’t finalize the paperwork to hire him back until after Christmas break.
“Great group of guys,” Keenan acting head coach Alex Harper said. “Can’t speak enough about them. We faced adversity all year with the suspension of Coach Norris. I feel like everyone counted us out, but we still made a push and had a chance to make it. Just didn’t get it over that hump.”
Harper stepped in as acting coach and the Raiders did their best on game days, winning three road playoff games to make it to the state semifinals.
But foul problems and a Fox Creek team that had the Raiders’ number this season were too much to overcome. The Predators won three of four games against Keenan this year after being 0-6 all-time coming into this season.
The foul trouble took its toll on the Raiders in the second half with four players fouling out, including leading scorer Antoine Caughman, who scored a team-high 22 points before leaving the game with 5:52 left and the Raiders down 57-46.
“That was the difference in the game. The fouls,” Harper said. “We talked about it all week and all season. We got to play without fouling. I’m not saying it was the refs’ fault, but we had to play without fouling and that is what we didn’t do today.”
Keenan was able to make one last push and Ja’Nolan Mathis got the Raiders within 65-61 with less than a minute left. But the Raiders were called for an intentional foul on the next possession and Fox Creek hit four free throws to push the lead up to 69-61.
The Raiders got within 71-68 with 7.8 seconds left but were unable to get a steal and the Predators sealed it at the line. Fox Creek hit 20 of 23 free throws in the fourth quarter and was 37 of 44 for the game.
Keenan was 18 of 23 from the free-throw line.
Justin Vining led five Fox Creek players in double figures with 20 points. Randy Robinson had 13 and was followed by Chuck Schwarz (12), Chanze Allen (11) and Keori Atwell (10).
“That was a really, good Keenan team we just played. Legendary program,” Fox Creek coach Tim Butler said. “I am glad we found a way to get a win.”
Broderick Anderson had 14 and Marcus Simpson added 13 for the Raiders.
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 7:35 PM.
