Alter seniors RJ Greer and Brady Conner each scored 12 points and sophomore Peyton Bakos added 10 for the Knights, which finished the season 20-7.
During their careers, Alter’s senior class won four district titles, three Greater Catholic League Coed championships, two regional championships and last year’s D-II state championship.
Overall, they were a part of 94 Alter victories. The class includes Greer, Conner, Charlie Uhl, Matt Lunner, Conner Watkins, Gavin Connor, John Keighley and James Ngoga.
“I’m very proud of what we have done, it’s just unfortunate we had a bad game tonight,” Coulter said. “It’s hard to win our league and it’s definitely hard to win a district as well. These guys have cut down a lot of nets and got a lot of medals over the course of their careers. It’s like I told them in the locker room, tonight we just got outplayed. They were better tonight than we were.”
A year ago, the Knights beat Wyoming 63-36 in a D-II regional final at Vandalia Butler en route to their fourth state championship in program history. They knew it was going to be tougher this year against a more experienced Cowboys squad.
“We were on their radar this year,” Coulter said. “To be quite honest, last year when we played them I said to (Wyoming coach Matt Rooks), ‘You’re all sophomores, you’re going to be really good, they’re really going to get better as the season goes.’”
This year, the junior-led Cowboys shot 45.7 percent (16-of-35) from the field and hit 15 of 21 free throws to seal the game in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Alter struggled on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 34.1 percent (15-of-44) from the field and 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from the 3-point line.
After three quarters, the score was tied at 28. Greer scored four straight points to make it 32-28, but Wyoming junior Devin Evans hit back-to-back 3 pointers and junior Kellen Wiley converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Cowboys the lead for good at 37-32. The Knights cut the lead to two points with three minutes to go, but couldn’t get any closer.
“Down the stretch, they hit shots,” Coulter said. “The one (Evans 3-pointer) was from the logo. For me, I just thought they did what you had to do to win and we didn’t.”
Several of the Knights senior class will play basketball at the next level. Greer, the D-IV Southwest District Player of the Year, is headed to North Carolina State, while Conner will play at Wright State University next season.
They’ll be remembered as one of the best classes to ever play at Alter.
“I’m real proud of all these guys,” Coulter said. “For us, it’s going to be sad because I’m going to look down the bench and there’s only gonna be a few guys coming back who were with this great senior group. As far as what they’ve accomplished in their career, I feel really proud of what they’ve done.”
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