Baldwin ? In Santa Fe Trail’s first boys basketball game of the season, Jake Carter, in street clothes because of a bad ankle, saw his team suffer a 22-point loss to Baldwin.

In Class 4A sub-state action Friday, Carter, a 6-foot-9 senior, poured in a game-high 22 points and dominated the paint, leading the No. 4-seeded Chargers to a 62-50 victory over the top-seeded Bulldogs.

“Not getting to play in a 22-point loss definitely gave me some motivation,” Carter said. “I wanted to come out and make sure that they knew that I was for real.”

If the Bulldogs (14-7) didn’t think Carter was for real before Friday, they do now. Carter towered over the Bulldog post players, and their ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ approach – like the planned fouling of bad free-thrower Shaquille O’Neal in the NBA – didn’t work, because Carter was 8-for-12 from the line. He also had several key blocks in the second half when Baldwin tried to mount a comeback.

“He was the difference,” Baldwin coach Heath Cooper said. “He’s such a presence inside the lane. We like to attack the glass and penetrate offensively, but he really took us away from that. We had a hard time getting it inside against him.”

With 4:31 to play and SFT seemingly in control, Carter’s free throw put the Chargers ahead, 49-38. But Ryan Jorgensen hit a jumper, then Aaron Hannon stole a pass and promptly was intentionally fouled by Santa Fe Trail’s Shawn Conklin. Hannon hit both free throws to cut the lead to seven with 3:35 to play.

Baldwin High's Blake Wieden puts up a shot over Santa Fe Trail High's Curtis Musgrave, left, and Brian Shively, right during the first half. Friday night's second round 4A Sub State game was played at Baldwin High.

After Carter answered with a layup, Drew Berg hit a three-pointer to make it a five-point game at 51-46. After a SFT turnover, Jorgensen sent the home crowd into a frenzy when he hit a running layup and was fouled. After the charity, Baldwin trailed, 51-49, with 2:35 to play.

“The crowd was into it, we were into it … we thought we were coming back,” said Blake Wieden, who finished with a team high 17 points for Baldwin but scored only four in the second half.

Then, back-to-back layups by Carter and Curtis Musgrave put the Chargers up by six, forcing Baldwin to foul. SFT hit their free throws, outscoring Baldwin 11-1 in the final 2:35.

“I’m so proud of my players. It was a great season for us,” Bulldog coach Cooper said. “It was our first winning season in five years. We were 3-9 in the league last year and 9-3 in the league this year. We beat two ranked teams and just played really well. Tonight, we just came up short.”

Santa Fe Trail will play No. 3-seeded Spring Hill (13-8) in the sub-state championship at 7:30 tonight at Baldwin.