ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Too little, too late.

River found itself in a huge hole against Malvern at the outset of their OHSAA D-VII District Final at the ECO Center Saturday afternoon. Despite a spirited fourth-quarter rally, the Pilots were unable to overcome a steep deficit, eventually falling to the Hornets, 44-32.

As a result, fourth-seeded Malvern improves to 17-9 on the campaign and punches its ticket to the regional tournament. The Hornets also advanced to the Sweet Sixteen two years ago.

The loss ended a sparkling season for the youthful Pilots. Coach Mark Romick’s third-seeded charges, with just two seniors on the roster, ended with a fine 15-10 mark.

Malvern, making the most of its pressure defense, stormed out to a 10-0 lead. The Pilots turned the ball over on their first six possessions.

“We were hoping our pressure was going to be effective,” veteran Malvern coach Dennis Tucci said. “It really set the tone for the game. That is as good a start as we could have ever hoped for.”

Malvern stretched its advantage to 14-3 after the opening quarter. The Hornets boosted their lead to 19-3 early in the second quarter before settling in for a 25-13 halftime advantage.

Malvern started the third quarter much like it did the game as its lead ballooned to 34-13 with just over five minutes remaining in the period.

River, however, didn’t go quietly.

The Pilots narrowed the gap to 36-22 after three periods before making the Malvern faithful a bit uneasy.

Led by the spirited play of junior point guard Evan Longwell, the Hannibal-based squad owned the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Longwell tallied eight points, the final one coming with 3:33 left to play, bringing Romick’s resilient crew to within seven at 39-32, and in possession of the ball.

Malvern, however, regrouped, and after forcing River’s 20th turnover of the contest, did a superb job of killing the clock and making free throws to escape with the win.

“We worked on breaking their pressure the last three days in practice,” Romick said. “But we didn’t handle it well today, especially at the outset. I said for us to be successful we had to have 10 or less turnovers.

“But our kids didn’t quit. We battled back but it was too steep a hill to climb. I thought Evan did a great job in bringing us back,” he added. “I told our guys only one team in D-VII will win their last game, so they should feel proud of making it to the district finals. Not a lot of players make it this far.”

Longwell led River with 18 points. Sophomore sharpshooter Crestyn Isaly was next with seven markers before fouling our in the fourth quarter. Isaly poured in 25 points (8 treys) in helping the Pilots oust top-seeded Frontier Tuesday.

“Along with our pressure another one of our keys today was to make sure the Isaly boy didn’t get a lot of space to shoot. He made eight threes against Frontier and we didn’t want him to get hot today,” Tucci noted. “I thought we did a good job of defending him. He is a really good shooter but I thought we made it difficult for him today.”

Grady Barkley was the lone double-digit scorer for the well-balanced winners. He tallied 14 points while Tripp Tucci chipped in with nine lightings.

Kaden Hunt and Aiden Milhoan were the lone seniors on this year’s River squad.

“I can’t say enough good things about my two seniors,” Romick said. “Aiden and Kaden were great leaders and excellent teammates. They accepted their roles. I will miss them both.”

Malvern committed just seven turnovers.