Isaac Starks finished his regular season career with a bang on Tuesday night after scoring a game-high 31 points and adding five assists, but his Denair team still fell in the team’s final game of the season to Orestimba High, 59-47.

“It was one of those weird nights when guys don’t know what they are playing for; just makes it a bit weird,” said Denair assistant coach Garett Elliott. “I do think Isaac was happy he was able to make a push and make big shots down the stretch to prove he is a good player.”

Starks, who is going to be in contention for the Southern Athletic League Most Valuable Player award, averaged over 24 points per game this season while always racking up the stat line with his ability to pass and also rebound at a high rate.

Unfortunately for one of the best scorers in the area, Starks was unable to get much help from his teammates on Tuesday night after no other teammate scored more than six to compliment the league’s top scorer.

“It really was a bad night shooting,” said Elliiott.

After the first quarter, Denair led by a point, then Orestimba fought back to switch the momentum and take a 23-22 lead at the half.

“After the first it was real close and it swung back and forth,” said Elliott. “It was a good defensive game… as you can see not a super high scoring night.”

Orestimba’s Luis Parra led the Warriors to an 18-4 run in the third quarter to finally take the 41-26 lead, the biggest of the game for either side.

Finally in the fourth quarter, Starks scored 11 points in a 90 second spurt and cut the lead to seven with about two minutes left, but Orestimba knocked down a three of their own to extend the lead and hold on to a solid lead for the remainder of the game.

“We rotated a lot of guys in, nobody really got into rhythm at all besides Isaac,” said Elliott.

Denair ends the year with a 4-8 SAL record and 10-16 overall. Three league losses were by a combined six points.

“Looking back throughout the last 12 games, we lost three games by just a slim margin, six points, if we win those then we come out on top and we have a playoff spot,” said Elliott. “Just looking we were right there, really a six point difference, but we enjoyed our group, best we have had and looking forward to what the sophomores and juniors will bring next year.”