Keenan boys fall in Upper State finals to Abbeville
A second-half scoring drought cost Keenan a chance to defend its state title.
The Raiders went more than five minutes without a basket in the third and fourth quarters in the 58-51 loss to Abbeville on Saturday in the Class 2A Boys Upper State final at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
The Panthers will play Timberland next Saturday for the state championship at 4 p.m.
“They played pretty good defense, give them credit,” Keenan coach Zach Norris said. “We got complacent. We got up big on them, and I thought our kids could coast. Like I told them, anyone can beat you on any given day.”
The defending state champions have a habit of putting teams away early, but never could deliver the knockout punch against Abbeville. The Raiders led 15-6 after the first quarter and 20-13 midway through the second, but the Panthers had the lead down to 28-27 at the half.
The teams exchanged leads seven times in the third quarter before Abbeville took a 37-36 lead on Ventray Belton’s basket with 55.4 seconds left in the third.
The Panthers stretched their lead to 44-36 before Tariq Simmons snapped Keenan’s scoring drought with 3:47 left in the game. The Raiders went 5:25 without a basket. Simmons led the Raiders with 20 points.
Keenan got only as close as four points the rest of the way.
“We should have put them away in that first quarter,” Norris said. “We started turning the ball over and started doing things we haven’t done all season. But I’m not going to take anything away from Abbeville. They came to play. I guess they remembered that loss last year.”
Keenan defeated Abbeville 76-55 in the second round of the playoffs last year.
Class 2A Player of the Year Joseph Battle led Abbeville with 20 points. The Tulsa commit, who was averaging 31.3 points a game, didn’t score his first basket until less than one minute remained in the first half.
Battle scored 10 points in the final quarter as the Panthers sealed their first state title trip.
“Battle is a great player, and we told him to let the game come to him. He was forcing it,” Abbeville coach Doug Belcher said “But he kept doing what his coaches asked him and came through at the end. We got down early, but we kept fighting, kept fighting.”
K: Tariq Simmons 20, Rodriguez Marshall 13, Poole 6, Osborne 6, Johnson 6. A: Rogers 2, Jamie Gray 12, Joseph Battle 20, Collier 2, Belcher 2, Belton 8, Tiquan Moore 10, Bryant 2.
This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 7:02 PM.