WILMINGTON — It can be difficult to win games while being dominated under the basket for nearly 32 minutes, yet Caesar Rodney High came just one possession shy of sneaking away with a victory.

In the end, the 18th-seeded Riders fell just short, 62-58, against 15th-seeded John Dickinson High in Thursday night’s second round of the DIAA boys’ basketball state tournament.

The Riders (10-5), making the program’s sixth straight tourney appearance, didn’t hold a lead the entire game but still took the Rams (8-5) down to the last couple of possessions in the heartbreaking four point loss.

“I think my kids played extremely hard,” CR coach Frank Victory said. “That’s a great basketball team right there; they’re well-organized, they’re disciplined, they play hard and so for us we just came up a little bit short tonight. We were right there, there were so many times when we were right there but we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Sophomore forward Trevis Lee (14 points), senior guard Maurkel Harrigan (12) and senior forward Bry’cere Spratley (11) each finished in double digits for the Rams. Lee was a disruption under the basket for most of the game, battling for rebounds and making life difficult for Caesar Rodney on the offensive side of the court.

Dickinson moves on to face second-seeded Salesianum School in the next round Saturday night. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

“We knew they had two studs down low that were just really space-eaters and that they were going to go get the basketball,” Victory said. “We had to be aware of what they were doing and if we didn’t stop them we knew this was going to be the result.”

A missed mid-range jump shot from the free throw line with 10 seconds remaining and a turnover with just five ticks left spoiled CR’s last-second hopes of tying or winning the game.

The jump shot, which ricocheted off the back of the rim, could have knotted the game up 60-60.

After Dickinson knocked down one of two free throw tries, Caesar Rodney received one last shot with five seconds remaining but the errant turnover put the finishing touches on the team’s 2020-21 season.

Junior Trey Voshell came off the bench to lead the Riders in scoring with 14 points, while senior center Jaelin Joyner netted 13 and senior guard Brycen Williams added 12.

Williams scored just two of those 12 in the first half as Dickinson controlled the game for much of the first 16 minutes, but CR didn’t let the Rams pull away with it and trailed just 30-24 heading into the halftime break.

Senior forward Ryan Carey (eight points), sophomore guard Malachi Brinkley (six) and senior Mason Williams (five) rounded out CR’s scoring.

“Brycen Williams is our stud, they knew that,” Victory said. “They tried everything in their power to try to get him out of the game and they did a good job with that. He really had to go find his shot and it was hard to do that, but to his credit he kept battling and the rest of the kids kind of noticed that and picked it up … we found answers from other players who stepped it up in big situations for us.”

Dickinson jumped ahead by seven points with under two minutes remaining in the third quarter but five unanswered points in the last minute of the period, including a crucial Voshell three-point shot with 23 seconds left, pulled the Riders to within 47-45 heading into the fourth.

Voshell continued making big shots in the fourth quarter, making it a three-point game with 2:11 left after muscling his way for an offensive rebound and putback.

“Trey Voshell came off the bench for us as a junior and gave us tremendous minutes,” said Victory. “He played with confidence, he played with no fear at all. He’s never been in the situation at all so to his credit he hit some big shots for us … we just fell a little bit short tonight.

“I am grateful, I am relieved -- because we didn’t have any COVID issues. The boys got the chance to play this year. Some of these boys have been working since they were 4 and 5 years old to have this opportunity, so I can’t thank the state and my administration enough for allowing us to play basketball this year.”