As Wyatt Kirch watched his final shot swish through the hoop and the red lights lit up the backboard at Rampart, the senior guard didn’t celebrate.

The clock hit triple zeros and the Rampart senior, along with his teammates, walked toward their bench as Lutheran players celebrated their 60-58 comeback victory that eliminated the No. 7 Rams on Tuesday.

“As much as this one stings, I know they’re going to take this and harness this,” Rampart coach Robert Brown said. “For some of them, they’re fortunate enough for that next level to be basketball. But as far as them applying this to being good young men and citizens, I know they’re going to apply this to their lives.”

The Rams built an 11-9 lead late in the first after Kirch hit an and-1 layup with 1:44 on the clock. Rampart built that lead to 26-18 at halftime and held the No. 10 seeded Lions (17-8) to nine points in the second.

Rampart also held the Lions’ leading scorer, Kade Speckman, who averages 18 a night, to just six in the first half and forced the rest of his Lutheran teammates to put points on the board.

The Rams had their largest lead after Kirch nailed an acrobatic layup where he drove to the cup, shook off a defender, reverse pivoted and kissed the shot off the glass to make it 33-22 with 4:57 left in the third.

However, following Kirch’s theatrics, the Lions ended the period on a 13-6 run to close the gap to 39-35 ahead of the fourth.

“We got grinded down a little bit for the fourth,” Kirch said. “They broke us down a little, but we still should have had it at the end.”

The trio of Kirch, Isaiah Melecio and Theodore Wilson combined for 53 of the Rams’ 58 points and the group had all but two of Rampart’s 19 fourth-quarter points. Kirch finished with 25, Melecio had 15 and Wilson scored 13 points.

Meanwhile, in a 50-second spurt, the Lions’ Logan Clarkson and Evan Knapp each hit a 3-pointer and Speckman tied the game with a steal and dunk to make it 47-47 with 3:07 left and forced the Rams to use a timeout.

Kirch was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three free throws and Christian Fleming hit a layup with 1:50 left to give the Rams a 55-50 advantage. But the Lions continued to chip away at the lead.

“That was a credit to Lutheran,” Brown said. “We had a plan to make sure (Speckman) had a difficult game and we did that. And they stepped up and hit some big shots toward the end.”

After the Lions tied it at 55-55, Evan Makkai sank a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to give the Lions a 58-55 advantage – Lutheran’s first lead since it was 9-8 with 2:18 left in the first – and forced the Rams to call timeout.

The Lions hit a pair of free throws after the Rams missed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left and snuck out of Rampart with a ticket to the Great Eight.

Despite the loss, Kirch said he’s proud of the Rams’ journey. Since going 4-19 in the 2022-23 season, the Rams have improved their win total each year including their 19-6 finish for the 2025-26 campaign.

“I’ve been with these guys since elementary and we’ve grinded it out,” Kirch said. “Even though we didn’t win, we put it all out there. I wouldn’t have it any other way with these guys.”