For the first half of Thursday’s opening round Class 3A boys state tournament game, the Maur Hill-Mount Academy Ravens were able to hang tough despite facing hot shooting from their opponent, the 8-seeded Hays-TMP Monarchs.

Unfortunately for the Ravens the Monarchs never cooled off as TMP pulled the biggest upset so far throughout state tournament taking down No. 1 seed and previously unbeaten MH-MA 73-51.

The Monarchs scorched the nets from start to finish shooting 67 percent from the floor, 64 percent from the 3-point line and 83 percent from the free throw line in the game.

TMP hit three of their first four 3-point attempts to jump out on top of the Ravens early leading 15-11 after the first quarter.

The Monarchs knocked down four more treys in the second quarter, but MH-MA senior Zach Schwinn put the Ravens on his back and drilled back-to-back-to-back long balls to keep the top seed within three points at the half.

TMP continued their hot shooting into the third quarter to take a 50-38 lead into fourth, as the Monarchs hit 6-of-8 field goal attempts in the third quarter including two more triples while holding MH-MA to just a 28 percent field goal percentage in the third.

The Ravens tried to get back into the game getting the deficit down to 9 points early on in the fourth, but TMP knocked down 17-of-18 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter to continue to build their lead and move on to the semifinals.

The Monarchs hot shooting proved to just be too much for the Ravens to overcome, as MH-MA wraps up a special season with a 22-1 record, a Northeast Kansas League regular season title and a repeat trip back to the state tournament.

MH-MA also sends off a seven member senior class that will leave a forever memorable mark in Tate Vowels, Zach Schwinn, Parker Mispagel, Jack Kocour, Austin Coder, Sam Regan and Ben Siebert.

MH-MA: Zach Schwinn – 19, Jack Kocour – 13, Jack Caudle – 9, Abe Siebenmorgen – 5, Austin Coder – 3, Parker Mispagel – 2.