After falling behind 22-2 at English Valleys on Thursday, the Lions had a chance to pull even with the Bears in the closing seconds, but the game-tying 3-pointer came up just short in Lone Tree’s 50-45 loss. 

The Lions trailed 41-29 points with seven minutes left when Cade Shield scored 11 points during a 16-5 run that cut the deficit to a single point with 19 seconds left. But the Bears were able to convert at the free throw line in the final seconds and the Lions’ tying shot hit the front of the rim.

Lone Tree opened the game with a field goal drought that lasted nearly 13 minutes, but closed the first half with a 12-4 run.

After trailing by 20, Mitchell Koedam cut the lead to 32-25 with an offensive rebound and putback. 

“Our ball movement was better,” Lone Tree coach Tom Squiers said. “I thought in the first half we did way too much dribbling. We did a better job running our offense.

“And I haven’t faulted our defense all year. Other than the Pekin game, I thought our defense has been solid all year and I thought we have good defensive effort tonight.”

The Lions struggled taking care of the ball at times and finished with 15 turnovers, including several that stalled the comeback. 

“We had a seven-point game and we turned the ball over four straight times – unforced turnovers,” Squiers said. “That was kind of the difference.”

Cade Patterson ended Lone Tree’s first-half field goal drought with 3:02 left in the second quarter. Patterson scored again with 26 seconds left in the half and Drew Gaulley took advantage of an EV turnover to cut the lead to 26-14 with five seconds remaining. 

Patterson was 6-9 from the floor and 2-5 from the 3-point line to finish with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Shield attacked the basket in the second half and went 8-9 at the free throw line to finish with 14 points and three steals. 

“They’re starting to play with a little bit more confidence,” Squiers said. “Considering they didn’t get a lot of varsity time last year, they’re starting to get a lot more confidence, especially Cade Shield. And having Cade Patterson back now from that injured ankle, he’s starting to get close to 100 percent. In practice he shoots the ball really well so that’s kind of what we expected.”

Kaden Hall, a 6-foot-3 junior, scored 14 of the first 17 points for English Valleys and finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds. 

Lone Tree was able to win the rebounding battle 46-28 with 17 offensive rebounds. Koedam finished with seven offensive rebounds and 12 total. Gaulley scored seven points for Lone Tree, and Alex Viner had four assists and three steals.