ORRVILLE — With the postseason on the horizon, Keith boys basketball coach Tommy Tisdsale wanted to give his six seniors extensive playing time Friday in the final regular season game of their careers. 

With the seniors leading the way, the Bears came a few shots short of pulling off an incredible comeback in a 70-64 loss to Francis Marion.

Keith had to weather an early onslaught by the visitors, who knocked down four first quarter three-pointers to take a 17-6 lead. Francis Marion never trailed in the game, but still had its hands full late against a Keith team that fought until the final second.

“I thought coming into the game that we wanted to be able to get better as a group and at the end of the night as a group I thought we got better,” Tisdale said.

Tisdale knew the Bears were going to get tested in a big way Friday. Not only are the Rams (17-6) ranked No. 8 in class 2A, but Bears leading scorer John Pettway was feeling under the radar and missed the game. Plus, it was senior night.

“A six or seven point loss, if you insert Pettway it’s probably a 15-point win,” Tisdale said.

“Not saying that he would score the excess points, but his presence on the court calls for attention.”

Even without Pettway, the Bears proved they are going to be a tough opponent once the AHSAA playoffs begin next week.

Led by Arthur Johnson’s 27 points, Marion led by double digits almost the entire way. Johnson scored 12 first quarter points and 15 in the third to help the Rams keep a big lead. In the end, they needed almost every single one of them.

The Bears clawed within 58-53 with 3:38 left, the closest they had been since the opening minutes of the game.

Norman Kelly scored on back-to-back possessions to allow the Rams to hold off one more late Keith push.

“We’ve been playing terrible our last couple of games,” Marion coach Johnny McAlpine said. “Practice has been about picking up the energy and playing as hard as we can play. I think they did that tonight.”

With Pettway out, senior Jaequan Simmons handled the ball the majority of the night and shouldered more of the scoring load. He knocked in five three-pointers, with most of them needed just to kept the Bears within striking distance, and scored 25 points.

Kent James, another senior scored six points and tallied several blocks for the Bears. Rayshaud Thomas, Kendarius Bryant, President Hasberry and Rodrecius Weatherspoon were also seniors playing one of their final career home games Friday.

If they have it their way, they still have three more home games to go.

The Bears host the class 1A, area 5 tournament starting Tuesday. Keith will take on Akron in the first round and will meet the Ellwood Christian versus Sunshine winner in Friday’s championship game.

If the Bears win the tournament, they’ll also host a sub-regional game.