Marietta’s Owen Riley (14) attacks the basket against Watterson in the regional semifinals Tuesday at the Convo. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

ATHENS — A disastrous second quarter spelled doom for the Marietta Tigers in Tuesday evening’s Division III Regional Semifinal against Bishop Watterson at The Convocation Center on the campus of Ohio University.

The Tigers opened the second quarter up by eight points and ended the quarter down by eight and were never able to recover as the Eagles advanced to the Elite Eight in the state with a 52-42 victory.

Bishop Watterson out-pointed the Tigers 19-3 in the pivotal second quarter, leading them to the win and bringing an end to the most successful Tiger basketball season in nearly a half century.

“They mixed it up on us and we got stagnant on offense and didn’t crash the boards and didn’t get stops on defense,” said Marietta head coach Austin Gardner of the second quarter. “Obviously we didn’t have a good quarter but the fight and the grind in the guys in the third and fourth quarters was special.”

The Tigers got off to a great start as the Eagles opened the game in a man-to-man defense which Tiger senior point-guard Trey Hawkins shredded in two in the early going.

Marietta’s Graesyn Moat, left, goes up for a 3-pointer against Watterson in the regional semifinals Tuesday at the Convo. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Hawkins drove strong to the basket and finished no less than four times in the opening six minutes alone as the Tigers took a 14-9 lead.

A bucket by BW senior Noah Holsinger cut the MHS lead to three but the Tigers finished strong with a three-pointer by freshman Graesyn Moat and a two-pointer by senior Lucas Miller to give them a 19-11 lead at the end of one quarter.

Tiger senior Owen Riley blocked a last-second shot by Drew Bellisari adding to the momentum the Tigers had built early on and bringing the large crowd of orange and black in the stands to their feet in approval of the Tigers early play.

Unfortunately for MHS, the Eagles changed the momentum in a hurry as they rallied to tie the game with eight consecutive points in the first two minutes of the second quarter.

Five consecutive points from Holsinger opened the second quarter for the Eagles and a three-pointer by Nick Scott tied the game with six minutes still to play in the opening half.

The Tigers got a three from Riley to briefly slow the Eagles momentum, but that would turn out to be the only Marietta points of the second quarter as BW scored 11 unanswered points.

Eagle junior big man Jack Schuler had back-to-back buckets and Scott finished out the quarter with his second three to push the lead to 30-22 at the break.

After Hawkins’ hot start, Watterson switched to a zone defense which surprisingly brought trouble for a usually good shooting Tiger squad.

“We kept going to Trey (Hawkins) early and he just kept making plays,” said Gardner. “We didn’t know if they were going to go man-to-man or zone and we were prepared for both but we struggled after they switched to the zone.”

Bishop Watterson picked up right where they left off to begin the second half as they scored the first six points of the third quarter to stretch their run to 17-0 and their lead to 36-22.

The Tigers finally broke through as junior Trenton McVey converted an old-fashioned three-point play which seemed to provide the Tigers with a much-needed spark.

Senior Zaiden Wittekind followed by grabbing an offensive rebound and while still in the air slamming it home with two hands to get the lead back into single-digits.

Another pair of points off of an offensive rebound this time by Hawkins allowed the Tigers to claw back within seven with less than three minutes to play in the quarter.

BW responded though as they made five free throws in the final two minutes of the third quarter to push their lead back to 12 (41-29) heading to the final quarter.

The Tigers got some strong play off of their bench by both McVey and Moat, and the two underclassmen led a charge that got them right back into the game in the final quarter.

McVey canned a triple to open the final quarter and Moat knocked down two more threes as the Tigers cut the lead to seven with still more than four minutes to play in the game.

“Those two guys really sparked us when we really needed it,” said Gardner. “Trenton made a huge three and also hit the boards and got a turnover and Graesyn made shots. He doesn’t play like a freshman out there and helped keep us in the game.”

Riley’s bucket off of an assist by McVey made it a five-point game before the Tigers got it down to one possession when Wittekind scored on yet another offensive rebound with 3:10 to play in the game.

That would be as close as the Tigers could get as it appeared that they used up all the energy they had to trim the 14-point deficit down to three.

MHS would not score another point the rest of the way as the Eagles scored the final seven points to secure the win and advance to the Regional championship game Saturday afternoon back at the Convo.

“We were a few plays from maybe turning the tide and we put ourselves in position,” said Gardner. “Credit to Watterson — they are a really good team. They are big and physical and they don’t beat themselves.”

Schuler led the Eagles in scoring with 14 points while Holsinger finished with 12.

Drew Bellisari added eight while Carter Bellisari, Mike Mulligan and Scott finished with six apiece.

Marietta was led by Hawkins with 10 points, Moat with nine, Riley with eight and Wittekind with seven.

While BW advances with a 21-5 record, the Tigers’ historic season comes to a close with an identical 21-5 mark and their first district championship since 1977.

The loss brings an end to the Tiger careers of seniors Miller, Owen Heslop, Hawkins, Logan Grosklos, Riley, Kobe Alexander, Wittekind and Braiden Plaugher, who were a part of 75 Tigers wins over their four years, which coincided with Gardner’s beginning as head coach.

“Eight special human beings who put in the work and fought all along and I’m glad they got to experience three games here at The Convo,” said Gardner. “Obviously we wish we would have won the game but the outcome doesn’t change the result of who these kids are and what they have accomplished.”

The culture the Tigers have built was evident by the huge number of Tiger fans who made the trek to Athens as well as the support they got before they left home.

“The crowd support was awesome and there was a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz and sports can do that,” said Gardner. “Sports can bring people together and that’s what they have done as a basketball team. They play really hard, they are super unselfish and they care for one another and people love seeing that.”

The Eagles advance to the regional final Saturday afternoon when they take on Steubenville, which downed Bishop Hartley 74-72 in Wednesday’s night-cap.