Boys' Basketball: McQueen beats Douglas with late run

It had all the marks of a team playing its first playoff game in a couple years.

And that was true for both teams on the court.

Unfortunately for the Douglas boys' basketball team, it was true early on for the McQueen Lancers and it was true late for the Tigers Tuesday night in Minden.

Douglas went scoreless over the final 4 minutes and 33 seconds and McQueen pushed a one-point lead into a 56-45 win to advance to the Northern 4A Regional semifinals.

"We just didn't stick to what we do well," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "We didn't dance with the girl that brought us to the ball. That's something we're obviously going to have to take a long look at during the offseason.

"But McQueen did a good job. We were attacking and getting to the rim when we wanted to in the first half, and then we only had one guy attacking the rim late when we usually have three or four. We have to go inside to our big guys. We got away from that and that's when they were able to stretch that lead out because they were keeping us mostly on the outside."

After Austin Neddenriep, who finished with a game-high 22 points, hit a runner midway through the third to cap a 6-2 run and put Douglas up 34-29, it appeared the Tigers were about to pull away with the momentum.

McQueen had other plans. The Lancers clamped down in their 2-3 defense and launched forth on a 15-5 run over the next six minutes. The run included four 3-pointers in a three-minute span that swung the momentum completely in McQueen's favor with a 44-39 lead.

"They got some easy turnovers on us and those turned into transition buckets," Thacker said. "When you turn the ball over, that's what is going to happen. We were missing shots and they were making them. That was the difference.

"They opened up from outside and hit those shots. They go dry and we're probably talking about a different game."

Instead, it was the Tigers' who went dry from the field.

Douglas clawed back into the game on a basket and a pair of free throws from Neddenriep and a basket from Garrett Getty. The 6-2 run cut the score to 46-45 before McQueen's Joe Saarem, who finished with nine points, hit a 3-pointer with 3:45 to essentially ice the game.

Neither team could sustain a possession over the next two full minutes of play, and neither team was able to put any points on the board either.

Douglas started fouling with 1:29 left and the Lancers hit seven of nine free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

It was a far cry from how the game started.

Douglas had its way inside early on and opened up a 15-11 lead on a 6-0 run heading into the second quarter.

The Tigers' pressure defense was forcing McQueen into easy turnovers and a Matt Thomas putback with 5:36 left in the first half gave Douglas what would be its biggest lead of the game at 21-15.

McQueen bounced back with an 8-2 run, six points of which came from Trevor Harnack, to tie the game up at 23.

Neddenriep made a reverse lay-up, drawing a foul and making the shot to put the Tigers up 26-23. He later made a layup with 11 seconds left to push the lead to 28-23. McQueen's Rollins Stallworth, who led the Lancers with 16 points, hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to cut it back down to 28-25.

Douglas carried a 6-2 run into the middle of the third quarter before the Lancers set up their game-changing run that extended into the fourth.

Matt Thomas finished with 11 points for Douglas, Theo Denson had five, Garrett Getty had four and Luis Pina-Duarte had three.

For McQueen, Harnack had 14 points, Saarem and Greg Cooper each had nine, Kyle May had four and CJ Grigg and Phil Smith each had two.