For most of the night, it looked like the Skyline High School boys would pull out a win over Heart of the Plains League rival Burrton Friday night, but the Chargers’ Alex Santiago led his team on a furious fourth quarter rally that gave Burrton the 62-61 win.
Skyline led 35-21 at halftime after ending the second quarter on a 20-2 run.
The T-bird stretched it to 40-21 before Santiago started taking over. He scored ten points in the third quarter as Burrton pulled within six points before Skyline scored five straight to take a 49-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Chargers ran off nine straight points midway through the quarter to get within 53-52 on a deep three by Santiago with 2:07 left.
Trent Befort and Jeff Rondeau each hit free throws to give Skyline a 55-52 lead with 1:26 left, but Taylor King’s putback made it a one-point game with 1:13 left.
On the next trip down the floor, Rondeau drove to the basket and appearred to be fouled, but the shot was blocked out of bounds and no foul was called.
King then came up with a huge steal with 55 seconds left, and 11 seconds later, Santiago drew a foul.
The senior hit both ends of the one-and-one to give Burrton its first lead since 19-18.
Santiago got a steal on Skyline’s next possession and was fouled, hitting both free throws for a 58-55 lead with 36 seconds left.
Tyler Bruton’s two free throws with 26 seconds left made it 60-55 Chargers, but Rondeau buried a three with 14.8 seconds left to keep the T-birds alive.
But, Santiago hit two more free throws to make it a four-point game with 11 seconds left.
Brennan Stotts drained a deep three with a few seconds left, but Skyline was out of timeouts and Burrton didn’t even in-bound before the buzzer sounded.
“We really wanted this. We played such a solid first half,” Skyline coach Justin Miltner said. “There in the third quarter we lost the momentum, but we gained it back and I thought we were OK, but we just lost it again.”
Burrton, which was led by Santiago’s 30 points, outscored the T-birds 19-8 in the final 5:30.
“Every 50-50 ball was going to them, every loose ball they were coming up with, and it felt like every call was going their way,” Miltner said of the final minutes. “The wheels started coming off and we couldn’t stop it.”
Befort led Skyline with 18 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two assists while Brian Moore added 14 points, six boards and two blocks.
Skyline (8-7) had a 40-30 rebounding edge, and hit 24 of 50 shots to Burrton’s 19-for-59 shooting. The Chargers had a big advantage at the free throw line, making 18 of 25 while Skyline was seven-for-13.
The T-birds will travel to Attica tomorrow night for another Heart of the Plains League game.
Burrton 62, Skyline 61
BHS: Alex Santiago 7 (2) 10-12 30, Ryan Webber 3 (2) 0-0 12, Tyler Bruton 1 8-12 10, Luis Rivera (2) 0-0 6, Taylor King 2 0-0 4, Zac Crow 0 0-0 0, Jacob Navarro 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 (6) 18-24 62.
SHS: Trent Befort 6 (1) 3-4 18, Brian Moore 6 2-3 14, Jeff Rondeau 3 (1) 1-2 10, Brennan Stotts 2 1-2 7, Jed Brenner (2) 0-0 6, Easton Burgardt 2 0-0 4, Brandon Broce 1 0-0 2, Aaron Hirt 0 0-0 0, Tristen Hirt 0 0-2 0, Chase Lykins 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 (6) 7-13 61.
B 13 8 15 26 — 62
S 13 22 14 12 — 61
Pratt, Kan. —
