The Lone Tree Lions wrapped up their regular season with a win Tuesday night, defeating the Highland Huskies 67-61.

Although Tuesday night’s contest featured a lot of twists and turns, there was only one actual lead change the entire night– early in the first, when Lone Tree took a 4-2 advantage. The Lions would lead the rest of the way, but the size of their lead would wildly vary. At the end of the first, that lead was 6, 18-12. The lowest scoring quarter of the night extended the Lion lead to 8 by halftime, 31-23.

The second half saw a lot of action. Lone Tree attempted to extend its lead multiple times, only to watch Highland make a key basket or two the other way to keep it close. The final few minutes of the third saw Lone Tree venture deeper into double-digits, leading by as many as 15 in the fourth, but again Highland found a way back in. Landon Roling, Kyler Fink, and Bryce Hazelett among other scorers helped take the deficit back to 2 points at 57-55. Unfortunately for the Huskies, that was as close as they’d ultimately get. Despite Highland winning the final quarter 21-16, it wasn’t enough, and Lone Tree ultimately claimed the 67-61 win.

Lone Tree head coach Johnathan Chaney says… “We talked at halftime about how tired we were. And we wanted to stay tired, because if we were staying tired, that was showing that we were working hard, and I really thought they did what we needed to do down the stretch to come home with a win.”

Domonic Garcia led the Lions with 17 points, 12 of which were in the third quarter. Reece Holbrook had 15. John Daufeldt had 13, 8 of which were in the first quarter. And Gray Spillman picked up 11. Roling led all scorers, gathering 20 for Highland, while Kyler Fink and Bryce Hazelett had 15 and 14 respectively.

Lone Tree improves to 5-15 on the season. They’ll face off against a winless Belle Plaine in a regional qualifier. Highland falls to 3-18, they’ll also play in a regional qualifier, against New London.