Whitmore Lake handed Clinton its only Tri-County Conference loss of the year on the Redskins' home court.

Clinton took sole possession of the league crown, and cut down the nets, on the Trojans' home court.

The stakes were raised once again Wednesday as the teams met in a Class C district semifinal at Manchester High School. No one had a home court disadvantage to claim.

More coverage: This Story on MLive.com | Boxscore | District Bracket

With seven lead changes throughout, the rubber match lived up to the billing. Clinton trailed by one heading into the final quarter, but outscored Whitmore Lake 32-18 in the final quarter to advance with a 101-88 victory.

After successfully denying Clinton (17-4) in the block for the second and third quarters, the Trojan (14-7) defense left Nate Dreslinksi open under the hoop where he scored 10 of his 12 points in the quarter. He finished with a game-high 27 points.

"We got a little bit soft defensively gave up a couple layups," said Whitmore Lake coach Dave Arnold. "Plays we were breaking up in the first half, now they were finishing in the fourth quarter."

Trailing 50-48 at half, Colton Judge opened the second half with an NBA-range 3-pointer, as part of a 9-0 run in which the Trojans made 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc.

"It didn't look good, (we) were doing the things that you can't do against this team and for three quarters they were hitting everything," Clinton coach Mike Ruhl said.

Whitmore Lake makes headlines with its record setting offense, but it was their defense that bothered Clinton through the first three quarters, forcing 18 turnovers.

"They mixed it up, seemed like they were sagging a little bit more than usual. Trying to mix up their schemes a bit with the press and at times we didn't handle it very well," Ruhl said.

Clinton pulled ahead with a 10-2 run to start the fourth. Judge brought Whitmore Lake within three with four minutes to go in the fourth after taking a steal coast-to-coast and finishing with a pull up 3-pointer, but the Trojans didn't have an answer for Dreslinkski, Rick Smith or Nic Greenwood down low.

Smith finished with 26 points and Greenwood had 24 and Judge led the Trojans with 25.

"Our defense got a little tougher, our decision making got a little better, our rebounding improved late and if you do those things late you're going to be ok," Ruhl said.

Whitmore Lake graduates nine seniors who helped Arnold institute his nontraditional system of constant three-point shooting and full court pressure.

"We were so bad when we went to this anything would be better than that. They bought in and played through some criticism," Arnold said. "The way that these guys have performed in this system, it really became a calling card for us and gave us an identity an identity I'm not sure we had before."

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.