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The North Penn-Mansfield Tigers are state tournament bound after the held on for a 43-41 win over Wyalusing in the District IV Class AA consolation game at Mansfield University on Thursday, March 1.

The victory was one where the Tigers had to fight for every point on every possession. They got off to a fast start as Garrett David scored the team’s first four points of the night, two from the foul line and two on a jump shot, but Wyalusing stormed back to eventually get within a point with under a minute to go.

Part of Wyalusing’s run came when the Tigers got into early foul trouble. David picked up his second foul with 3:53 left. The Rams eventually took their first lead of the game in the waning seconds of the opening quarter on a Will Martin layup. A steal by Eli Bennet a second later made it to Martin for another layup, and Wyalusing led 11-8.

Martin put Wyalusing up 13-8, their largest lead of the night, to start the second quarter but Mansfield eventually tied it at 13-13 with five minutes remaining after a three by Sawyer Freeman and turn-around jumper by Dylan Meyer.

The Tigers trailed 18-17 until Jacob Green put them back in front with under two minutes to go on a three, then extended their lead to 22-18 as Jayden Andrews came up with a steal, and converted both foul shots after getting hacked on a layup with 56.1 seconds left. Mansfield added one more bucket as time ran out. Alex Stein attempted a left-corner three but missed, luckily Brent Burleigh was there to clean it up and lay it in before the buzzer sounded to put the Tigers up 24-19.

The Tigers started out the second half on a steal/layup by David to take their biggest lead of the night at 26-19, but were again hit with foul trouble as David and Freeman both picked up their third fouls. After David checked back in, he was hit with his fourth foul with 6:03 remaining and up 28-22.

That’s when the Rams went on their run.

Morrison cut it to four points after he was fouled by Nick Kasper while grabbing a rebound. A Kasar Cameron steal/layup then cut it to two. Mansfield then went back up four as Andrews hit a layup and drew a blocking foul on Cameron, his third of the game, with 2:06 remaining.

Andrews missed the bonus shot leaving at 30-26 until Morrison hit a three with under a minute to go to cut it to a one-point game. The Tigers closed out the quarter on a Meyer bucket, but again were hit with another foul, this time a fourth on Freeman, with 28.2 left.

Wyalusing started running into foul trouble to start the fourth as they fouled Meyer early on. Meyer hit 1-of-2 shots from the line to go up 33-29 but the Rams answered back as Morrison drained a three to cut it to 33-32.

From that point on both teams traded the lead back and forth. Martin put the Rams up 34-33 with 6:49, then Meyer put the Tigers back up 35-34 with 5:30 left. Both teams were tied at 36-all with 5:05 remaining, then Morrison gave the Rams a one-point lead on a foul shot with 4:43 left.

A David layup put the Tigers up 38-37 with 3:31 left to play, then Morrison gave Wyalusing back the lead as he was fouled by Freeman to go to the line. With 2:22 remaining Burleigh tied it at 39-39 on a foul shot, but Morrison put the Rams back in front, 41-39, on a baseline jumper with 2:00 remaining.

With 1:03 remaining, Chandler Brown was hit with a holding foul on David, sending him to the line. David hit the first shot to make it 41-40, but missed the second. However, Meyer was there to grab the offensive rebound then finished a turn-around jumper in the paint to put the Tigers up 42-41, and giving the Tigers all the momentum.

After a Wyalusing timeout with 1:01 left they had two chances to score but came up empty. After a Meyer rebound the Rams fouled Nick Kasper to send him to the line with 21.4 remaining. Kasper missed the shot, but the Tigers maintained possession as the Rams hit the ball out of bounds. Once the Tigers inbounded the ball the Rams fouled Burleigh. Burleigh hit the first shot to put Mansfield up 43-41, but missed the second to give the Rams a sliver of hope.

Wyalusing took a timeout with 8 seconds remaining to try and get a good shot opportunity, but the inbounds pass was sent into the fourth row seats by Meyer with 7.8 seconds left. The Rams got the ball in and worked it over to Morrison for a chance at a three, but the shot fell short and the Tigers held on.

Meyer had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers. David finished with 10 points and three steals, Andrews had four points, six steals, and three rebounds, Burleigh had four points, three rebounds, and five assists, and Green and Freeman both added three points. Kasper added two rebounds, three steals, and three assists.

Morrison finished with a game-high 22 points for the Rams and Martin added 15 points, five rebounds and three assists.

The win improves the Tigers to 17-10 and qualifies them as the #3 seed from District IV for the PIAA tournament, starting Tuesday.