HUMBOLDT — Crest High was in complete control early on Tuesday, zipping out to a double-digit lead against Erie in the first round of the Humboldt Preseason Tournament.
The Lancers led 14-4 in the waning seconds of the first quarter when Erie’s Reid Duff beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer from the left wing.
That was all it took for momentum to swing in Erie’s favor.
The 3-pointer triggered a 21-4 run spanning the rest of the half.
Erie led by as many as nine in the second half before withstanding a furious Lancer comeback, winning 45-42.
Crest (1-1) returns to Humboldt on Thursday to play the host Cubs before wrapping up the round-robin tournament Friday against Uniontown.
Lancer coach Dakotah Sporing said Erie’s zone defense in the second quarter also played a role in Crest’s suddenly stagnant offense.
“Their length gave us problems, and we started throwing it to hands and not to our team,” Sporing said. “We were staring and throwing, and they got easy buckets off of it.”
Neither team did much in the third quarter, as Erie’s lead yo-yoed between five and seven points before the Lancers scored at the end of the period to make it 31-28.
Duff and Ethan Dillinger scored to start the fourth quarter, giving Erie its biggest lead of the game at 37-28, before Crest responded.
Ryan Golden scored inside before Jacob Zimmerman scored twice, the second of which was a three-point play to slice the gap to 41-37. A Lancer steal led to a Brody Hobbs trey, pulling Crest to within 41-40. Golden’s steal and layup 15 seconds later had Crest back on top for the first time since the second quarter.
But Dillinger responded just as quickly with a bucket of his own.
A Lancer miss on Crest’s next possession led to a pair of Dillinger free throws with 15 seconds remaining.
Crest had two shots to tie the score, but both three-point attempts went long as time ran out.
“Losing’s not fun, obviously,” Sporing said. “But right now, I’ll take a close game with a loss than winning a game by 30, where you don’t get much from it. The good news is we’ve got 18 more games, and this one’s over,” he said.
Golden led Crest with 16 points, followed by Zimmerman with 12.
