MADISON HEIGHTS >> Hazel Park was nearly perfect from the free-throw line in the second half of Friday night’s 59-52 victory at Lamphere that keeps the MAC Bronze title still hanging in the balance.

The Vikings knocked down 14 of their 16 attempts after halftime — nearly all of them in the fourth quarter — to deny the Rams’ an outright league championship.

“They were fouling us down the stretch, and we just had to knock them down,” said Hazel Park junior Ki’Shaun Stewart, who made all but one of his shots at the line in the fourth and finished with 18 points.

Altogether, the Vikings shot 80% (20/25) from the line on the evening. By comparison, Lamphere got to the line 13 times, connecting on eight attempts.

“That was very clutch,” Hazel Park head coach Cecil Goff said. “That’s something we’ve gotten better at. We’ve really been harping on those, and turnovers, limiting those. We’ve lost some close games this year because we were a little selfish, turned it over, didn’t make free throws and didn’t box out. So we make sure we work on those things at practice all the time.”

An absence of runs all the way towards the run-in had the contest feeling like it would be as close as the league race itself. But the biggest one was appropriately most decisive.

Up until the fourth quarter, neither team had led by more than a handful, then Hazel Park’s Chris Hana knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Vikings up 43-37 with 6:10 to go. Lamphere had an answer from the perimeter rattle out on the opposite end, then senior Mike Riley drove the paint and finished to cap off a 7-1 spurt by the visitors.

Junior Jack Robinson, who knocked down three of the Rams’ six shots from outside on the night and finished with a team-high 16 points, got Lamphere to within three with two free throws inside the final three minutes. But after a potential game-tying 3-pointer didn’t go in, the Vikings put on a clinic in cycling the ball and pulling away in the final two minutes.

Hana and Stewart each made a pair from the charity stripe, and though a trey by Aiden Lindsey that came off an offensive board got Lamphere back to within four with 24 seconds remaining, a missed reverse layup on the Rams’ next possession that could have made it a three-point game slammed the doors on their hopes.

Rams head coach Bobby Robinson, whose team came into the night unbeaten in the league, felt his team came out flat, partially as a result of the weather canceling school the past several days and disrupting the usual rhythm. While he wasn’t surprised by the Vikings mixing up defensive looks throughout the game, he seemed surprised Hazel Park alternated back to a zone with his team struggling to shoot it from deep.On where the Rams could have been sharper, Robinson said, “They shot 25 free throws. It’s hard to beat a team when they make more than you attempt. That’s tough. It’s tough to counter that. And I felt defensively we weren’t as good as we should have been. We had some offensive rebounds we gave up. Just those little things in a tight ball game make a huge difference.”

The stage was certainly set for a coronation. At halftime, Lamphere (14-6, 8-1) honored members of its team from 2002, the last to win a league championship. A win Friday would have secured the program’s first in the MAC.

Quincy Twymon had 13 points, Aidan Grzesikowski scored nine and Mychael Foster added eight in the Rams’ loss.

Hana, who missed just one of his seven free-throw attempts, had a game-high 22 points for the Vikings (13-8, 7-2), who now have a chance to split the Bronze crown with the Rams next Thursday in Hazel Park.

“We’ve talked all year about winning the league,” Goff said. “That was our goal. We knew that if we didn’t win tonight it was out the window, so we came out with intensity. For the most part, we played well as a team. We got in some places where we got a little selfish, but then got it back on defense.

“It’s winner take all now. We’ve got to play even harder next time because they’re going to come at us strong. I know they’ll come for vengeance.”