ON THE MOVE — Toronto’s Brady Fair drives the ball toward the paint during Tuesday’s OHSAA Division VI East District tournament game against Buckeye Trail. - Andrew Grimm

TORONTO — When all is said and done in a few weeks, only one team in each division will end their season celebrating. For everyone else, the ending will be disappointing.

Unfortunately for Toronto Tuesday night was their disappointing finish line to what will go down as a memorable season for the Red Knights.

Visiting Buckeye Trail came into the George J. Kunzler gymnasium, got an early lead and pulled away down the stretch to hand the Red Knights a 57-39 defeat in the opening round of the OHSAA Division VI East District tournament.

“This is going to be tough,” Toronto head coach Sean Tucker said. “This is such a great group of kids to coach and be around. It’s really sad and not going to really sink in until tomorrow.

“It makes it hard to know that the practices are over, the whistles stop and the ball will stop bouncing.

“I’m really proud of our guys and the fight they showed, we didn’t give up and we lost to a very, very good basketball team in Buckeye Trail. They’re big, physical and we went toe-to-toe with them for a while. It just came down to scoring.”

While not the ending that they envisioned with back-to-back losses in the OVAC championship game Saturday and in the tournament, the Knights did finish with a 16-win season, a third-straight campaign with double-digit wins, earned the program’s 1,100th victory in the process and reached the OVAC tournament once again, leaving a lot to be proud of when the sting wears off.

“Our school and community should be very proud of these guys, our team represented their school and town as well as they should have,” Tucker said. “This group set a great example for the young kids coming to games. I’m really proud of them. We’re very thankful for Red Knight nation and all the support.

“There is a lot to be proud of, we accomplished a lot this year.”

It was the end for two Red Knight seniors — Aiden Filby and Russ Dickinson.

“We had two great senior leaders this year, I cannot be more proud of the young men that they are,” Tucker said. “They come from great families and it shows through their character and who they are. We’re going to have big shoes to fill.”

Tucker hopes the loss will be a motivating factor for the group that will come back next year.

“This should make them come back hungry and I know they will,” Tucker said.

The Warriors (16-7), the No. 6 seed in the bracket, opened a 13-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. Toronto (16-7), which was seeded fifth, got its offense going and pulled within two at halftime at 23-21.

Trail pushed back in front by six going to the fourth quarter and opened the lead to nine with a two-and-one from Mason McQuain, but Toronto made another push back to within five.

The Knights rally effort took a hit midway through the quarter when Austin Buchanan fouled out, and the Warriors were able to pull away from there to advance.

Brady Fair led Toronto’s effort with 11 points, while Landon Grimes tallied 10 and Buchanan had eight.

The Warriors got a game-high 18 from Travis Dodd, who went 11 of 12 from the foul line, helping the team go 21 of 26 from the line, including 9 of 10 in the fourth quarter to help seal the deal.

Trail will travel to fourth-seeded Caldwell on Friday night with a spot in the district semis on the line.

OHSAA Division VI 

East District Tournament

First Round at Toronto High School

No. 6 Buckeye Trail 57, No. 5 Toronto 39

BT 13-10-15-19 – 57

T 4-17-11-7 – 39

BUCKEYE TRAIL (16-7): McQuain 2 2-3 6; Hastings 4 2-2 12; Wayble 2 3-3 7; Dodd 3 11-12 18; McGlumphy 1 3-6 5; Arick 2 0-0 4; Hickman 2 0-0 5; Jones 0 0-0 0; Loudin 0 0-0 0; Eagon 0 0-0 0; Haybig 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16, 21-26; 57.

TORONTO (16-7): Filby 3 0-0 6; Grimes 3 3-4 10; Buchanan 3 0-0 8; Fair 3 5-6 11; Dickinson 0 0-2 0; Joynson 0 0-0 0; Winters 1 0-0 2; Henry 1 0-0 2; Heckathorn 0 0-0 0; Rebich 0 0-0 0; Bloomer 0 0-0 0; Bodnar 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16, 8-12; 39. 

3-POINT GOALS: Buckeye Trail 4 (Hastings 2, Dodd, Hickman); Toronto 2 (Buchanan 2).