Tiverton came back from a nine point deficit to lead by three in the second half before succumbing to Wheeler 58-57 at the Wheeler School field house in Seekonk Monday night.

“They beat us on the glass tonight. That’s where we lost this game. They out-rebounded us. (Wheeler forward) DJ Smith did a great job playing off the glass,” said Tiverton Head Coach David Landoch.

Tiverton forward Michael Hrycin drove the lane to make a jumper over a Wheeler defender to cut the lead to 58-57 with 1:03 left in the game.

Tiverton’s zone defense kept Wheeler at bay as they attempted to stretch their lead in the last minute. Wheeler fouled Tigers forward Zeke Pacheco after he rebounded the ball, putting him at the line with a chance to give Tiverton the lead with 9.7 seconds left in the game. The second shot rebound bounced out to Wheeler forward Tim Holt and Pacheco pounced on him, forcing Holt to travel —Tiverton ball under the basket.

Tigers forward Dylan Clark had three chances to inbound the ball with the clock winding down from 7 seconds left to play. Twice Wheeler tipped the ball out of bounds. Clark threw the third inbound pass to guard Will Brigham off a screen. Brigham tried to catch the hard low pass standing on the sideline in front of the Tiverton bench, but the the pass trickled through his legs and out of bounds.

Wheeler ball.

“Wheeler played great defense on it. All three possessions,” said coach Landoch.

Tiverton fouled after Wheeler inbounded the ball. Wheeler’s Elijah Ramos threw up a brick from the foul line that clanged down to Hrycin. The Tigers forward took a step and heaved up a full court shot that bounced off the backboard as time ran out.

Wheeler led 33-27 at the half and led by as much as nine, 45-36 with 10 minutes left. Tiverton junior forward Carson Hart led the charge for the Tigers, scoring 19 of his game high 27 points in the second half.

“Carson has been awesome this year. He is a pure shooter. He doesn’t need space. He shoots over people. He rebounds, plays defense, is a great team player and he busts his rear-end all the time,” said coach Landoch.

Hart tied the score 50-50 with 4:47 left hitting a lightly defended three from the right side.

Hrycin shot a three to give Tiverton a 55-52 lead with 2:49 to play but back-to-back threes by Wheeler wiped out the Tigers’ lead.

They beat us by over twenty last time. We wanted to get a little revenge. We almost got it, but it didn’t happen,” said the coach.

Hrycin scored 13, Brigham scored 12, Clark scored 4 and Pacheco scored 2.

The loss dropped the Tigers record to 11-3 overall.

The Tigers have four more games left in the regular season and hope for a long playoff run.