ASHTON – Only a week into the 2022-23 season, the Ashton-Franklin Center Raiders already have more wins than they did all of last year. Their opening surge culminated in a championship Saturday at their own Thanksgiving tournament.

AFC used a second-half run to take control of a tight ballgame, then held off a Durand rally for a 64-59 win in the finale of the AFC Thanksgiving Tournament.

“It sounds amazing to say we’re the tournament champs,” forward Lane Koning said. “We’ve struggled my entire high school career, and to come out my senior year and start off 4-0 after winning only three games last year, it’s great. We have high hopes for the season, and this sets the tone.”

The Raiders ran their offense through center Kaleb Goldman in the high post, and it worked to perfection, especially in the second half. He would take the entry pass and either turn to face the basket and shoot a jumper, take one power dribble to the basket, or pass it back out to the opposite wing for an open perimeter jumper.

Goldman also was tough in the low post early in the game, scoring four baskets on the blocks and also dishing a pair of assists on jumpers by his guards. The 6-foot-4 senior finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

“The offense that our coach gave us this year, it really works, and I really, really enjoy it,” Goldman said. “I can have high-scoring games, Lane can have high-scoring games, basically all the posts can have high-scoring games.

“It’s really, really cool to do this. In past years, AFC really hasn’t done much. This year, to win the tournament, feels really, really great.”

The 6-foot-4 Koning was also a key contributor for the Raiders, finishing with team highs in rebounds (12), assists (9), steals (2) and blocked shots (2) while scoring seven points. Several of his assists went to Goldman, but he also had a pair of length-of-the-court baseball passes on inbounds plays late in the game that went for layups to help AFC hold off the final Durand charge.

“Everyone stepped up and made plays,” Koning said. “This year, we have incredible depth; everyone on the bench and on the court can play the game well. So no matter who we need in, we can put them in and get strong play.”

After a 16-5 run over the final 4:50 of the first half gave the Raiders a 34-27 lead at the break, Durand (3-1) battled back to tie the score 36-36. Evan Folk started the surge with a 3-pointer early in the third quarter, and Connor Hughes’ putback with 2:44 left in the period knotted the score.

But Goldman scored inside, then kicked out to Carson Rueff for a 3-pointer to retake the lead. Goldman then drove down the lane for a layup with 21 seconds to go to make it 43-38 through three quarters, then picked up a loose ball and hit a layup 53 seconds later for the first basket of the fourth and a 45-38 margin.

“I think once the second half hit, we settled down a little bit. It’s the championship game, and we’ve struggled the past couple years, so we had some high emotions in the first half,” Koning said. “We settled down in the second half and got the ball into the middle. Goldy was a menace for us tonight; everything was going in for him. And then being able to hit the perimeter shots when we needed to was great.”

Michael Cochrane hit a jumper and Goldman found Jordan Harris on a baseline cut for a layup and a 49-40 lead, then knocked down a jumper free-throw line to give AFC a 51-40 lead with 4:47 to play.

Koning scored on a drive to the basket, then Noah Danielson buried a 3-pointer on an inbounds play. Harris and Danielson ran the give-and-go for a Harris bucket, then Rueff hit a floater in the lane for a 60-46 lead with 2:17 left to cap an extended 24-10 run.

“I think it was just a team effort tonight. Everybody out here contributed; even the people who sat on the bench were over there pumping us up, the fans were great, everybody was great,” Goldman said. “We have literally everybody on our team that can step up. We have our five starters, but we can have people come right off the bench and do the same thing those five starters did. This team is looking real different this year.”

Durand wasn’t done, as Connor Hughes scored on a putback, then Roger Maines hit a pair of free throws after a technical foul before hitting a 3 to cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to 60-53 with 1:14 remaining.

But Koning threw the long passes to Harris and Cochrane for layups on inbounds plays around another 3-pointer by Maines, the second one making it 64-56 with 42 seconds left. Nathan Folk knocked down a 3 with 26 seconds left, but back-to-back empty possessions by Durand in the final 20 seconds ended the comeback.

“I’ve got a competitive group of kids. They hate losing,” Durand coach Micah Voight said. “They play their heart out, and they want to win. You can do a lot with that as a coach.

“We just made some mental mistakes on our positioning and where we needed to be. We were missing one of our big guys – a 6-4 athletic kid that is averaging double-digit rebounds a game for us – so that hurt us on the inside, and we struggled to rebound. We just made some mental errors of giving up things that we shouldn’t.”

Maines led Durand with 18 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks, and Nathan Folk finished with 15 points and three steals. Connor Hughes had seven points and five rebounds, Noah Musselman scored six points, and Brayden Hughes and Evan Folk both had five points and two steals; Hughes grabbed six rebounds, and Folk added five.

Rueff had 12 points, four assists and two steals for AFC, and Danielson finished with eight points, six rebounds and two assists. The Raiders assisted on 21 of their 28 baskets, and took care of the ball down the stretch; only one of their 22 turnovers came in the fourth quarter.

“I told them that we needed to attack the basket. That was the key,” AFC coach Mike Messer said. “I told them before we came in tonight that with the 1-2-2 zone that Durand runs, we needed to get the ball to the middle, because if we got it to the middle, we’d be good. I didn’t expect it to be my post player; I expected my point guard to be able to sneak in there and get the feed, but he didn’t, and instead my post player got big and he took it. That was our game plan, to get it to the middle, because I saw that might work – and it worked.”