Photo by Jake McNeill Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s Drew Werkman (left to right), Sean Griesse, Luke Schreurs and Chase Christianson walk off the court after the Knights’ state tournament game against Cherry at the Target Center on Wednesday. The Knights played Heritage Christian Academy in the Class A fifth-place game at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul on Saturday, falling 63-62 to the Eagles.

ST. PAUL — The Class A boys basketball fifth-place game between Heritage Christian Academy and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton went down to the wire on Saturday at the Gangelhoff Center. In a game full of lead changes, a last-second free throw allowed Heritage Christian to hold on for the 63-62 victory.

RTR never led in the final 10 minutes of the game but also never trailed. Neither the Eagles nor the Knights held more than a 4-point lead at any point after halftime and the game was tied at five separate points.

The most crucial of those game-tying baskets came from Blake Christianson. With nine seconds left in the game, the senior guard caught a pass from Eli Determan and knocked down a jumper from beyond the arc to tie the game at 62-62.

The Knights’ elation was short-lived, however, as Abu Tarawallie drew a shooting foul with two seconds to play. He missed the first free throw but made the second to seal the victory for the Eagles.

Tarawallie finished the game as the Eagles’ leading scorer with 19 points on 9 of 15 from the field while Josh Sokeye added another 18 points for the Eagles. Tarawallie scored 7 of his 19 points in the final four minutes of the game.

Still, it was Drew Werkman who finished the night as the game’s leading scorer. The Knights’ senior forward scored 26 points on 50% from the field. Chase and Blake Christianson also finished in double figures with 14 and 11 points respectively.

While Blake Christianson did finish in double figures, his most valuable contribution to the Knights’ offense was his ability to get other players involved. His nine assists on the night tripled the next closest player — Heritage Christian’s Sokeye with three — and he turned the ball over just three times.

As a team, RTR finished with 16 assists while Heritage Christian finished with just six. Despite four steals from Sokeye and another three from Griffin Booms, the Knights also held a 9-11 advantage in the turnover battle, which they turned into a 13-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

Chase Christianson was the game’s most effective floor-spacer. While both teams primarily worked in the paint, where they finished with 32 points each, Chase Christianson’s four 3-pointers on 10 attempts tied Heritage Christian’s team total.

The rest of the Knights combined to shoot 2 of 16 from beyond the arc, with Christianson and Werkman responsible for the only makes.

RTR got everyone involved early, getting points from Werkman, Carson Gylling and Blake and Chase Christianson to jump out to an 8-4 lead through the first five minutes of play. Yet, the Eagles battled back quickly. Sokeye scored each of the Eagles’ next 7 points to give Heritage Christian an 11-10 lead just two minutes later.

Still, RTR had maintained an elite defense all season long and Saturday was no different. After Sokeye’s solo run, the Knights held the Eagles scoreless for more than five minutes. During the stretch, Chase Christianson hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and Werkman and Gylling each converted on layups to give the Knights a 17-11 advantage with 10:14 to play.

Chase Christianson finished the night with 10 rebounds, including four on the offensive glass, to lead the team on the boards. Werkman and Blake Christianson finished with another seven and six respectively but Heritage Christian still maintained a 40-37 rebounding advantage for an 8-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Tarawallie was one of two players to record a double-double on the night, alongside Christianson, finishing with 12 total rebounds and five offensive rebounds. Booms and Sokeye also added another eight and seven rebounds respectively.

Tarawallie ended the Eagles’ drought with a layup at the 7:36 mark but the Eagles weren’t able to recapture the lead for the remainder of the first half. Sockeye finally made it a one-possession game again when he converted a layup to make the score 19-17 with 5:51 to play. Still, Werkman responded with a midrange jumper just 11 seconds later to bring the Knights’ lead back to 4 points.

Three minutes later, Werkman hit another jumper to give the Knights a 29-21 lead, their largest of the game. Yet, the Eagles controlled the final two minutes of the half. A pair of Aaron Palmer baskets, broken up by a Sokeye jump shot, made it a 29-27 game at the end of the first half.

The Eagles kept their momentum rolling into the second half. Tarawallie opened the second period of play with a layup to tie the game and Owen Haag finished off Heritage Christian’s 10-0 run with a layup to make the score 31-29.

Haag’s layup just over a minute into the second half marked the first time since the first five minutes of the game that the Eagles held a lead.

Both teams traded baskets back and forth for the next five minutes. Each of the second half’s nine lead changes came within its first eight minutes.

A free throw from Jonah Moulton with 9:13 remaining in the game gave the Eagles the lead for good and another from Palmer, along with a Tarawallie layup, gave Heritage Christian its largest lead of the game, 53-49, with 6:46 to play.

Heritage Christian led for 10:20 of game time, 9:24 of which came in the final 10 minutes of regulation.

Andrew Meyers, Chase Christianson and Elijah Determan each recorded a block on the Knight for RTR while Palmer finished with one for Heritage Christian.

With the loss, RTR finishes the season at 24-9 as the sixth-place team in Class A. Werkman, Gylling, Meyers, Blake Christianson, Colby Frahm, Ben Guida and Isaac Norgaard are all graduating after this season.

Heritage Christian caps off its season at 23-8 and claimed the fifth-place trophy with the victory.