Staff photo / Preston Byers South Range’s Graham Heikkinen (33) thinks about driving to the basket during the Raiders’ playoff loss to Norwayne on Saturday in Cleveland Heights.

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS — Hours after Northeast 8 Conference rival Poland was eliminated from the playoffs, South Range followed suit on the same floor Saturday in Cleveland Heights.

The Raiders’ shooting woes plagued them in the Division V, Northeast 4 district final vs. Norwayne, which led all but the opening three minutes en route to a 63-43 victory.

“Norwayne’s a great team. They had a great season, but we knew it was gonna take a great game from us to come out on top,” South Range head coach Pat Carden said. “We didn’t shoot it particularly well tonight, and credit to them, they made the shots they needed to.”

South Range took its first and only lead of the game when Graham Heikkinen made a 3-pointer less than 90 seconds into the contest. The basket would be the Raiders’ lone field goal for the next five minutes, as the Bobcats shut out South Range during a 17-0 run.

Luke Rohan ended the drought with 1:15 left in the quarter and pulled the Raiders within 10 points at the end of the period.

The Bobcats pulled further ahead in the second quarter, thanks in large part due to another scoreless streak for the Raiders. During a nearly five-minute stretch in the second, Norwayne outscored South Range 10-0 and took a 29-16 lead into halftime.

“They play very fast, they play very physical,” Carden said, “and they did a great job defending us tonight. They had us well-scouted. They were taking away our actions, and we struggled to get the ball inside and at the rim. And when we do that, that typically opens everything else up for us, but we weren’t able to get inside.”

After the half, the Raiders’ defense made a marked improvement, especially in guarding Parker Metsker, who made three 3-pointers in the first half.

South Range was unable to make much of a dent in the Bobcats’ lead, however. At the end of the third quarter, Norwayne’s advantage had been trimmed from 13 points to 12.

With neither the score nor time on their side, the Raiders, trailing 48-34, were forced to intentionally foul as the clock ticked under 3:30 to play. The Bobcats subsequently converted on most of their chances at the free-throw line, and the Raiders, who needed a hot streak of shooting, could not summon one last run.

Heikkinen (18) and Rohan (15) combined for 33 of South Range’s 43 points, while four Bobcats – Braden West (22), Tyson Hess (15), Braylon Arnold (10) and Metsker (10) – scored in double figures.

“They have one really great shooter and a couple other guys who shoot it well,” Carden said of Norwayne. “Our plan was to guard the one shooter and kind of let the other guys [go] and see where the chips fall. But those guys made the shots early. Like I said, credit to them; they did everything they needed to do, so we had to adjust that, get out with those guys, guard them around the perimeter and then it seemed like when we did that, we kind of lost sight of some other guys on the back side and they were able to get some layups.”

With Saturday’s loss, the Raiders’ season is over. They finished with an overall record of 20-5 after coming in second to Poland in the NE8 title race.

“Fantastic season. It’s a shame because I feel like we don’t have a lot of accolades to show for it. We didn’t win the league, we didn’t win the district. We had 20 wins. We had some fantastic wins,” Carden said. “It’s a great group of kids where we were able to come into practice every day. Mood was light. Guys worked hard. We’re always locked in and focused, and they did everything we asked them to do. And I just couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.”