Entering Saturday’s Class 3, District 8 tournament at Laquey, Fatima (3) challenged top seed Dixon to the very end of the game, ultimately losing 67-66 in a highly physical contest.

“We were playing really well coming into last week, and then played pretty well against Iberia in the first round, and really well against Belle,” said Coach Matt Baker, his team finishing 15-14 on the year. “I thought we started the district title game really well. It’s a tough game to kind of put your thumb on, because I don’t think either team played particularly badly or had any huge mistakes. I think eventually their depth wore us down a little bit. Teams were in a lot of foul trouble, and they just never gave up. They kept swarming us.”

Fatima opened solidly, with 21 first-quarter points as the Comets passed well and the defensive effort helped the team hold the Bulldogs to 16 and 11 points in the first two quarters, respectively. That gave the Comets a 38-27 halftime lead.

“For the first two-and-a-half quarters, we did a really good job of not turning the basketball over and not putting ourselves in trapping areas or tough positions,” said Baker. “I think fatigue and maybe a little bit of youth, but probably more fatigue than youth at this point, just put us in some precarious positions, and they were able to turn us over and eventually get away with a one-point win.”

Fatima’s overall shooting mark of 51% bested Dixon’s (39.7%), so it wasn’t about raw offense. “Everybody stepped up when they needed to,” said Baker. “It just didn’t fall our way at the end.”

Baker said he was pleased with the leadership of his seniors, Blake Kliethermes and Xavier “Chet” Stuecken.

Kleithermes was a beast, scoring a game-high 31 points, including four three-pointers and a 5-9 performance at the FT line, four assists, and 11 rebounds. Stuecken added nine points, six assists, eight boards, and two blocks.

Dixon returned to the court with urgency and began chipping away at Fatima’s lead.

With 2:41 remaining in the third, Dixon had momentum after reducing Fatima’s advantage to 49-41.

By the end of the frame, the Comets’ lead had been cut to 51-50, but Fatima continued to battle.

The fourth quarter saw a back-and-forth escalation unfold.

Baker pointed to several key moments down the stretch.

“Bryce (Wieberg) was huge on the glass,” he noted. “He had a couple of big shots and a huge rebound late on the intentional free-throw miss. He also had a great screen that nobody will ever remember. We ran a sideline out-of-bounds play and kind of ran a hammer action. He set a great screen to get Evan (Klouzek) open on the baseline for a wide-open shot to tie it, and it rimmed in and out.”

Wieberg posted six points on two treys and was big under the basket with seven rebounds.

Klouzek, a freshman, has seen a lot of varsity playing time and improved throughout the season. “He scored 203 points,” said Baker. “He averaged seven and a half a game, but he really got rolling late. I think he scored close to 100 points in his last five games. Evan had big moments in big games. He’s going to be special.”

Klouzek hit two three-pointers on his way to 11 points.

Dixon took the lead, 65-62, on a long three, with 1:12 to play. From there, the Comets had to foul, and the Bulldogs converted. The last two were huge, with 11.5 seconds to play, which gave Dixon a 67-63 lead.

Kliethermes hit a three-pointer at the buzzer, but the game ended with a one-point differential.

Baker emphasized the level of execution in the closing minutes.

“There was a lot of really, really well-executed basketball in the last four minutes,” he said of both teams. “Even down to intentionally missing the free throw and getting the extra possession — there was a lot happening.”

Devin Luebbert also scored six tough points around the bucket, complementing Kliethermes on the inside. “Devin and Blake were up and down all year, just grinding through a full varsity season and full varsity minutes,” said Baker. “They learned a lot about themselves, and we learned a lot about them.”

Henry Robertson added three points on a long-range shot and did a good job handling the ball at the point, finishing with five assists.

After reviewing the game multiple times, Baker said there was only one moment he would reconsider. “It’s really easy to look back and nitpick, but I felt like our kids were prepared,” he said. “We weren’t surprised by anything. We didn’t give up anything easy on their sets.”

He referenced one late possession involving foul trouble. “There was one possession where I had Blake on the bench because he was in foul trouble,” Baker explained. “We had talked about calling a timeout if we got a defensive rebound to get Blake back in for ball-handling reasons. We got the rebound, and I didn’t call the timeout because we were on the break. It turned into a deflection and a layup the other way. That’s really the only moment I look back on and wish I had handled differently.”

Still, he expressed confidence in the overall approach.

“For a game like that, to only have one moment wishing I’d done something different, I feel pretty good about it,” said Baker.

Baker noted that few believed his team would be playing for a district title.

“Nobody expected that,” he noted. “We were up and down all year, starting two freshmen and playing a third a lot. Outside of Chet and Blake, we didn’t have much varsity experience back.”

He credited leadership and growth. “It speaks to the toughness of these young kids and the leadership of the two seniors we had,” Baker said.

Klouzek added three rebounds to the team’s tally, with two more from Robertson, as Noah Wilbers and Luebbert each posted one.

Defensively, Klouzek had two steals and a block, and Wieberg added a steal.

Fatima opened the district semifinal against Belle in the same fashion as the previous meeting, with a high-power first quarter leading to a 19-9 lead. The Tigers pushed back in the second to keep the game within reach, trailing 36-25 at the break.

The teams traded advantages in the second half, with Fatima winning the third (23-10) and Belle claiming the fourth (25-14), with a 73-60 end result to send the Comets to the championship game.

Kliethermes was again solid, going 15-19 at the stripe as he scored a game-high 33 points. Klouzek lit up the Tigers from the outside, converting four treys as he posted 17 points, followed by Stuecken (trey, 4-5 FT) with nine, Luebbert (trey) with eight, and Wieberg (trey) and Ty Brandt each scoring three. Kliethermes, Wieberg, and Stuecken posted two assists apiece.

On the glass, Kliethermes grabbed nine to pace the team, followed by Wieberg (6), Luebbert and Klouzek (5 each), Stuecken (4), and Robertson (3).

Kliethermes and Stuecken finished with two blocks apiece to anchor the defense.

In the opener, the Comets knocked off Iberia, 76-42.

Klouzek led the Comets with 20 points, including four three-pointers, and Kliethermes (trey, 2-2 FT) scored 19. Stuecken reached double figures with 14, and Wieberg (2 treys) scored 10, as Robertson put in six on a pair of threes, Wilbers (trey) added three, and Trent Stuckenschneider and Luebbert finished with two apiece.

Nearly everyone got into the assists column, with Wieberg, Robertson, and Klouzek sharing the lead with four each, Kliethermes and Luebbert (3 apiece), Wilbers (2), and Stuckenschneider, Toby Libbert, and Stuecken (1 each).

Wieberg’s six steals led the defensive effort, as Kliethermes pilfered four, and Stuecken added two, with the latter two posting two blocks each.