BARRINGTON — St. Andrew's School Varsity I boys' basketball coach Mike Hart termed the NEPSAC Class AA quarterfinal round playoff game between his fourth-seeded Saints and fifth-seeded Tilton School a "50-50" proposition.

Proving himself to be prescient, he was right.

St. Andrew's saw a 12-point lead nearly evaporate late in the second half before the Saints held on in the final minute to defeat the reigning Class AA champion Rams, 69-61, Wednesday, March 2, at Sage Gym.

Aaron Wheeler, the Saints' 6-foot-8 junior wing, led the locals with a game-best 21 points. Samuel Friday, a 6'8" post-grad, added 16 for the Saints, 14 in the second half. Robert Martin, Tilton's 6'6" senior forward headed to Houston's Rice University in the fall, led the visitors with 19 points. Senior guard Brett Hanson, a University of New Hampshire commit, chipped in 11 as did Marcus Zegarowski, the brother of former St. Andrew's star and member of the Milwaukee Bucks Michael Carter-Williams.

"Friday and Wheeler bailed us out today. We didn't shoot it as well as we usually do," Coach Hart said.

St. Andrew's improved to 21-9 on the season with the win while Tilton saw its winter come to a close with as 16-12 mark. The Saints face top-seeded Vermont Academy in the semifinals on Saturday, March 5. A trip north is in the offing for the locals after Vermont defeated eighth-seeded Kimball Union Academy in another of Wednesday's quarterfinal games.

The winner between the Saints and Wildcats Saturday advances to the Class AA championship game Sunday, March 6, at 3 p.m. at Rhode Island College.

"If it's Vermont we have to defend Bruce Brown, the best player in New England," Coach Hart said of the Wildcats' University of Miami-bound senior. "He's a left-handed guard who can handle and shoot the ball extremely well. We've got to contain him and we have to score, of course."

The Saints had no problem scoring for a roughly six-minute stretch in the second half of Wednesday.

The game was tied at 30 at halftime and the teams traded the lead for the opening few minutes of the second. The visitors were first to gain some separation, opening up a 44-40 spread at the 12-minute mark.

From there, though, the Saints caught fire. LaSalle University-bound, 7'1" Irish import Cian Sullivan sparked a 13-0 Saints run with a nice step-through lefty hook. The spree later included a corner 3-pointer from Wheeler, after Nate Duda rebounded a missed Friday free throw, and another bucket from the Connecticut native at the end of a break following a Friday blocked shot. The latter sequence gave St. Andrew's a 53-44 lead with just under 5 minutes to go.

Tilton's Martin, the son of former 1980s Pitt standout Bobby Martin, finally ended the spurt with a corner 3. But the Saints would still build on their advantage, eventually growing it to a game-high 12 (60-48) on a finger roll by Wheeler, who's receiving ample interest from major Division I programs including both Providence and Rhode Island.

"We finally had the right combination of guys in there that gave us some grit. We also created some good looks on offense and we were a little bit bigger than them so we could rebound the ball," Coach Hart said of the run.

Needing to change the momentum and the score, the Rams more forcefully employed a three-quarter court press they had used earlier, but at that moment began to really rattle the Saints. The locals turned the ball over a couple of times and didn't help themselves when they did get it over half-court, making some questionable decisions to attack early in the shot clock.

And when Martin drained a 3 from the wing with just over a minute left, the Rams' deficit was a mere point (62-61) with plenty of time remaining.

But Wheeler, as he did all game, came through when needed. Keyshaad Dixon penetrated the Tilton defense then kicked it to the corner where his mate then calmly drained a triple with just two seconds left on the shot clock to put the Saints up 67-61 and all but ice the game with 23 seconds left.

"We got a little nervous. We were breaking their press all game and then when we had that lead we started to think about winning the game and the guys choked up a bit. Luckily for us Aaron and Sam pulled us through," Coach Hart added.

Duda was one of three Saints in double figures, chipping in 11 points. East Providence native and Saints senior center Terrell Brown had six points. "Terrell had a nice game. He didn't score as much as he could have, but he grabbed a ton of rebounds and defended really well," Coach Hart said.