The Fannett-Metal Tigers(10-14) went on the road and lost a heartbreaker to the Forbes Road Cardinals(18-4) 50-42, in the District 5A Semi Finals.  With the victory, the Cardinals will move on to the Championship Game where they will take on #1 seed Turkeyfoot Valley.  The Tigers will fall into the Consolation Bracket where they will take on Shanksville-Stonycreek for a chance to move on to the PIAA State Tournament.  Both games are Wednesday at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.  

In a defensive battle, the Tigers took a 12-6 lead after one quarter of play.  In the second quarter the Tigers led 18-13 with just under 3:00 to go.  The Tigers extended the lead to 20-13 when guard Jake Coffman hit Evan Wingert with a behind the back pass for an 8 foot jumper.  Forbes Road would then go on an 8-1 run to tie the game 21-21 going into halftime.  Evan Wingert paced the Tigers with 13 first half points. While the Tigers held Forbes Road Big Man, Jacoby Knepper to 6 first half points, it was non- starter Owen Long who gave Forbes the spark they needed in the second quarter with 8 points to tie the game. 

The 3rd quarter was an exciting quarter of high school basketball as the lead changed hands six times in the quarter.  The Tigers appeared to have some momentum when the Cardinals Matt Fraker and Sawyer Hollibaugh drilled back to back three pointers to give the Cardinals a 36-35 lead at the end of 3rd quarter. Knepper had 6 points in the quarter while Broc Hostler paced the Tigers with 9 points in the quarter.  

In the 4th quarter the Tigers took the lead with a little over 6:00 minutes to go but two offensive rebound scores by Knepper and a corner jumper by Long gave the Cardinals the lead for good.  With under a minute to go, down 47-42 the Tigers called a timeout and set up a sideline play but missed a corner three.  The Cardinals Knepper rebounded the ball and hit Michael Strait in transition to get the basket and the foul.  Strait hit the free throw to convert the three point play and seal the Cardinals victory 50-42.  

“Our game plan was to contain Jacoby the best we could.  To limit his touches and double down when we could.  We did our best but he was still able to get some key offensive rebounds that really hurt us.  Forbes is also a good transition team and they have some really good outside shooters.  Other than that late transition bucket we controlled their transition game pretty well and our guards did a great job contesting their shooters only giving up two treys.  But in a one possession game with several lead changes like this one, it comes down to late game execution in the fourth quarter and they made a few more plays than we did.  They are a very good team who is well coached, and I hope they win the D5 Title”, Coffman said.  

Evan Wingert had his best all around game of the year with 19 points and 6 rebounds.  Broc Hostler hit for 15 points and had 6 assists. Gage McClure had a trey and two rebounds.  Jake Coffman added 2 points.  Coffman also added 4 assists, 4 rebounds and a pair of steals.   Landon Arnold had  2 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.  Parker Lantz had 1 point and 3 rebounds.  Knepper led the Cardinals with 20 points.  Owen Long had 13 points and Sawyer Hollibaugh had 7 points.  The Cardinals held a 20-19 advantage in rebounds.  The Tigers had 6 turnovers while the Cardinals had 5.