Bill Benton exited the locker room at Denver Coliseum after a nearly 40-minute chat with his Lewis-Palmer players.

The postgame meeting lasted longer than Benton’s typical debrief after a game, but considering the Rangers lost 51-47 to No. 13-seeded Silver Creek in the Final Four on March 12, this warranted an extended conversation.

“I told them I love each and every one of them and I’m appreciative of who they are as young men,” Benton said. “We wouldn’t be where we are if they weren’t the young men they were. This group learns from success, adversity and the highs and lows. That’s going to carry them on in life whether they continue basketball, start their families or whatever their next journey is. The resilience they have is going to carry them. We’ll all get better from this.”

Benton said the players carried most of the conversation in the locker room and senior Jonas Miller confirmed that. Miller said this close-knit Rangers squad had a bond he hadn’t experienced – on or off the court – with any other team and the loss to the Raptors doesn’t mean the end of that ride.

“(Wednesday) night we were at coach’s house enjoying a team dinner,” Miller said. “When you’re going through stuff in life and you have one of your brothers there for you. Moments like that are priceless. I know they’ll be there for me and I’ll be there for them.”

The Rangers (18-9) meshed well throughout the first half and trailed for less than 90 seconds in the first three quarters. Lewis-Palmer, the No. 8 seed, took a 5-4 lead with 5:11 left in the opening frame and built that to an 8-6 advantage after the first.

Silver Creek (23-4) tied the game at 10-10 early in the second, but Bryce Lowe hit a floater that sparked an 8-0 Ranger run and built an 18-10 lead. Nate Darnell, who finished with a season-high 13 points, hit a free throw in the closing seconds of the half to make it 21-17 L-P at the break.

The Raptors outscored the Rangers 16-14 in the third to cut the lead to 35-33 and heated up in the final eight minutes to take their first lead since 5:11 was left in the first.

“We knew it was going to be physical and (Silver Creek) takes after their coach with that,” Benton said. “They had the opportunity to make some plays and disrupted us with their zone. Our mentality was to take them out of what they wanted to do.”

After Devin VanderMeer nailed a 3-pointer to build the Rangers’ lead to 40-35 with 6:37 left in the game, the Raptors used an 11-0 run to make it 46-40 with 3:30 on the clock.

The Rangers cut the lead to 49-47 with 11.5 seconds left, but the Raptors staved off Lewis-Palmer, which finished the contest 4-of-21 shooting from beyond the arc, their worst percentage of the year.

“You try not to over coach and you want to not overdo it,” Benton said. “You look back as a coach and wonder what you could do differently. You reflect to see where you could have made it work. This is a tough one to go out on.”