EAST LANSING - With less than 30 seconds remaining in the Class A state championship game, five Huron players squatted at the scorers table, waiting to be subbed in. Though it was the first game action any of them saw all night, none look pleased.

They knew their entry meant the game was over.

Huron guards Dante Williams, A.J. Mathew and the rest of the Huron regulars walked to the bench at the Breslin Center, wiping tears away with their jerseys. Kalamazoo Central had denied Huron its first basketball championship in school history and claimed its first since 1951 with a 74-65 win.

"It’s just important I think when you get to that point in the game you get those kids in the game who have been working so hard," said Huron coach Waleed Samaha. "You want give those kids a chance to get on that floor and have their names go in the record books as well."

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The River Rats used a balanced scoring attack and aggressive full-court defense to get in that record book as the first team in school history to make the finals. They met their match in both categories against Kalamazoo Central.

Kalamazoo Central limited Huron to 38 percent shooting. Mathew, normally Huron's leading scorer, was 0-for-14 from the floor and finished with just three points, more than 10 below his average.

"They move the ball well, they share it well, they defend they rebound, they do it all," Samaha said. "They’re well coached and they played real well today."

Mathew, like most of the Huron roster, will return next year. Just 11 of the River Rats' points came from players who won't be back next year.

"I remember seeing a sign saying it was their road to redemption," Mathew said. Kalamazoo Central lost to Detroit Pershing in last year's final. "This coming year it’ll be our road to redemption, I just hate that we can’t leave our seniors with a state championship."

Huron trailed by as many as 18 points midway through the third quarter but got within nine, 57-48, with 5:27 left in the fourth quarter when juniors Williams and Matt Hastings hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

"A lot of teams that would have faced that kind of intensity and that kind of fire at different times would have folded. We got a lot of fight in this team,” Samaha said. "A lot of people would just assume the position and say ‘were in the state championship we’re happy to be here and let's just sort of make sure we go through the quarter and be happy to be here.” We’re not that team. We’ going to fight til the last second."

Huron would cut the lead to nine on two more occasions, but each time Kalamazoo Central’s Devin Oliver responded with a basket to put his team back up by 11.

Williams led Huron with 24 points and almost single handedly kept Huron in the game in the first half with 15 points and four 3-pointers.

Shooting 33 percent from the field and with only one scorer with more than a single bucket, being down 33-25 at half was almost a minor victory for Huron.

With Williams finding his touch, Oliver had visions of Keith Appling in his head. This year's Mr. Basketball almost single handedly eliminated Central in last year's championship game with 49 points.

"That’s the first thing we were thinking about when we were going into the locker room we wouldn’t have one player beat us by himself again,” Oliver said.

Oliver made sure of it at the beginning of the third quarter, finishing emphatically on a two handed dunk after beating the Huron press during a 6-0 Central run. Oliver finished with a game high 26, and played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls.

"I rememeber last year I fouled out in the state championship game and it sucked," Oliver said, smiling from ear to ear with his teammates at the post-game press conference.

Second year Kalamazoo Central coach Mike Thomas kept the Dayton bound senior in the game despite the foul trouble and he responded with 12 points in the final frame.

Huron sophomore Mike Lewis scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter comeback attempt and senior Jalen Bouma finished with 11 points.

“They were even more skilled than they were last year and I think them losing in the state championship just made them want it more and I think that’s why they got it today,” Mathew said. "Just hearing everybody chanting how Kalamazoo Central won, I just know not only me but everybody on the team including the coaching staff will remember the feeling."

Rich Rezler contributed to this article.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com.