Pilots fall to Raiders in D1 regional final, 54-53
Raiders advance to quarterfinals
As the fervor died down after the celebration, North Farmington junior Avi Meltser’s dad walked over to his son and told him that the free throws he shot at the end of Thursday night’s Division 1 regional final at Detroit Renaissance were “just like the driveway.”
Meltser proved his ability to knock them down on any surface, hitting 3 of 4 from the line in the last 25 seconds to send the Raiders past Warren De La Salle, 54-53, and into the state quarterfinals.
The Raiders led by as many as seven with under three minutes to go when they began to spread the floor and slow the tempo, but the Pilots responded with several clutch buckets. Phoenix Glassnor barreled down the floor and threaded the lane for a bucket while drawing a foul from Dylan Smith, converting an old-fashioned 3-pointer that made it 51-48 with 1:07 remaining. And as Tyler Spratt left three points at the charity stripe over two trips, Julius Wilson pulled up for a tear drop, then Armani Portis (14 points) hit a runner, the latter of which made it 51-50 with 27 seconds left.
That’s when Meltser went and hit one of two free-throw attempts, and after a turnover by the Pilots inside the final 10 seconds, he knocked down both tries at the charity stripe with 6.8 ticks left to make it a fourpoint game.
Portis pulled up for a 3-pointer just before time expired and the celebration for North Farmington ensued.
“Our coach always says, when it comes down to the big games, free throws are always important,” Meltser said. “There’s two things in life that don’t make it: dogs that chase cars and teams that don’t make free throws. At the end of the game, when it came down to it, free throws were the biggest part of it.”
Having scored just six points in the second quarter, North Farmington trailed 29-17 at the break. The Raiders responded by coming up with a handful of steals in just the first three minutes of the third quarter, leading to multiple transition