The Tiverton basketball team ended their season, falling two-points shy to Prout, 64-62, in a Division three preliminary playoff game in South County on Friday night. The loss dropped Tiverton to 8-15 for the season. Tigers head coach Dave Landoch honored his seniors Caleb Purcell, Joel Nientimp, and Carl Perry for their leadership and play this season. 

“The team continued to grow this season,” he said. “We played a very difficult schedule, which could have easily deterred the guys, but they were resilient.”

Jase Kelly, Caleb Purcell and Angel Cruz led Tiverton in scoring as they battled back from a 33-20 halftime deficit to trail 49-41 after three quarters and go up by four points, 62-58, with a minute left to play in the fourth. But a six-point Prout run erased their lead.

Kelly netted a game-high 20 points in leading the Tigers in the second half comeback. The junior guard made just four foul shots in the first half. He came out strong after the break, draining a 3-pointer and scoring 16 of his 20 points. Purcell and Cruz also scored most of their points in the second half. Purcell scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half, shooting mostly from the paint, while Cruz was burying shots from beyond the 3-points arc. The junior guard sank four 3-pointers for 12 of his 16 points. Freshman forward Ryan Marx sank a 3-pointer and chipped in, scoring eight of his ten points in the first half. As a team, the Tigers scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to cut the lead down to a single bucket, but they ran out of time.

“We never quit,” said Coach Landoch. “The coaching staff and I are extremely proud of all of them.”