Osceola’s 6-foot-9 Omar Payne had four blocked shots, six rebounds and two dunks, but missed most of the action in the first half after being hit with a personal foul and a technical foul struggling for a rebound early in the game.

The Osceola Kowboys couldn’t come away with a win in the regional championship game against Oak Ridge in Varsity Boys Basketball Friday night. Oak Ridge did the celebrating with the 57-54 win and will move onto a chance for State Championship as they will play in the final four.

Foul trouble by both teams meant the fate of game would be in the hands of their reserve players, and with the Kowboys up by one as they entered into the final minute of play their was hope for Osceola’s hope to move onto the State Tournament.

Unfortunately for the Kowboys they committed two big turnovers and Oak Ridge capitalized on them.

Starting Senior Rob Perry, who scored a game-high 18 points, sunk a 30 foot 3 pointer to give Oak Ridge a 50-49 edge, followed by Osceola’s Armani Thomas answering back with a 3 pointer of his own.

Perry scored a layup after grabbing a bad Kowboys pass with 54 seconds left on the clock. Another error by Osceola cost them another basket, but the game wasn’t over as Osceola’s Jaduhkiss Soto was fouled on a 3-point shot trying and made 2 or 3 from the foul line bringing the score to 55-54 Oak Ridge with 15 seconds left.

Oak Ridge’s Taylor was fouled and sunk two of his free throws with 3.5 seconds to go to end the quest for Osceola. Osceola’s Jaduhkiss Soto gave it one more chance but his half-court “hail mary” went wide of the basket as the horn sounded ending the game and the season for the Kowboys.