The Tigers suffered two losses against Claflin losing the game 43-56 and a player with Brandon Blakeslee suffering a season ending injury in the fourth quarter.
“He broke four bones in his foot, which will require some surgery this week,” said head coach Clint Kinnamon. “We will miss his toughness most of all. Hopefully he heals fully and works on getting ready for next season.”
Before the injury, the Tigers were already playing like a team on injured reserve.
“We really struggled shooting the ball the whole night, shooting 22 percent as a team for the game,” said head coach Clint Kinnamon. “Omar was really the only one that shot a good percentage.”
Claflin took advantage of the Tigers slow offense going up 15-6 in the first quarter with Zach Achor, and Matt Ward being the only two Tigers to find the basket from the field with each hitting a solo two-pointer. Danton Hilton hit the second of a two-shot penalty as did Zach Minnis.
In the second the Tigers uped their scoring by four hitting 10 points off a deuce by Herrera, a trey and a deuce by Hilton, and 2-3 from the line by Achor, but the Wildcats lead continued to grow with Claflin scoring 16 in the second for a 31-16 lead.
“Defensively, we were not very alert, nor did we play very hard in the first half,” Kinnamon said. “We got down 17 at the start of the third quarter before we started playing harder and making some shots.”
The Tigers cut the lead to five with three minutes left in the third with a triple shot of three-pointers by Herrera, a solo trey and 3-4 from the foul line by Brandon Blakeslee for 15 points.
The defense picked it up a notch holding Claflin to only nine points, but Claflin’s free throw shooting in the fourth kept the Tigers at bay as they scored 16 to the Tiger’s 12 for the final of 56-43.
The Tigers face 8-10 Victoria Friday for the Winter Homecoming game. Varsity game time is 6 p.m. with the homecoming ceremony taking place between the girls and boys varsity games.
