WIESBADEN, Germany – The European boys’ basketball tournaments lost its first defending champion Thursday, when the Baumholder Bucs toppled the Hohenfels Tigers 33-32 in second-day, single-elimination play in the boys’ European Division II tournament.

“I thought I was going to miss it,” Baumholder’s Breon Herbert said of his game-winning free-throw with two seconds to play which gave Baumhodler its first lead of the game. The point, which came on the first of two tries Herbert earned, capped a decisive 10-5 fourth-quarter run for the Bucs. Herbert missed his second try, but the Bucs’ defense forced a low-percentage final shot from beyond half-court that missed the backboard.

Tahrell Harris, with 10 points, led the scoring for Baumholder, which has won two games here by a total of three points. The Bucs dropped a 46-40 pool-play decision Wednesday night to Vicenza. Herbert finished with nine points.

Hohenfels’ Xavier Davis led all scorers with 15 points.

Baumholder, the No. 3 seed in D-II, advance to a 10:30 a.m. quarterfinal game Friday at Wiesbaden Army Airfield against No. 5 American Overseas School of Rome. AOSR eliminated No. 12 SHAPE 48-25 on Thursday.

Friday’s other boys’ D-II quarterfinals pair Ansbach and Black Forest Academy, AFNORTH and Schweinfurt and Naples and Aviano.

Oddly, Naples and Aviano, perennial dominators of Region IV, will be meeting for the first time this season. Two regularly scheduled dates for the two to play in Naples were scrubbed by February snow. They’ll finally get together at 8 a.m. at the German police academy in Mainz-Kastel.

In the tourney’s other divisions:

Three pool-play games into the three-day European Division I boys’ basketball tournament on Thursday, the word “even” didn’t even begin to describe the eight-team field.

Second-seeded Patch and third-seeded Ramstein emerged with narrow victories over No. 7 Wiesbaden and No. 6 Lakenheath, respectively, and fifth-seeded Kaiserslautern knocked off No. 4 Vilseck 65-60.

Playing on its home floor, Wiesbaden set the day’s tone when their 23-13 fourth-quarter run fell just short in a 53-51 defeat.

Roscoe Johnson, who scored a game-high 23 points, tallied 13 of those in the final stanza. Patch’s Dylan Measells, however, scored seven of his 13 points over the same span to provide just enough equilibrium for the Panthers.

Kris German led Patch with 15 points; sophomore Kelsey Thomas added 11 for Wiesbaden.

In the day’s second game, Ramstein, which lost one game each during the regular season to Patch and top-seeded defending champion Heidelberg, found itself tied with Lakenheath, an 8-6 team it handled 69-56 in January, at the end of three periods.

Junior Will Dorsey, however, converted seven-of-eight fourth-quarter free-throw opportunities to see the Royals through to a 38-29 victory. The charities allowed Dorsey to take game-scoring honors in the 28-minute pool-play game with 15 points. All-Europe senior DeVonte’Allen added 11.

Brinsely Walker led Lakenheath with 12 points.

Free-throws spelled the difference for Kaiserslautern, too, in the Red Raiders’ opener.

K-town led just 59-56 after a Derryk Scarvers steal and layup with 2:29 to play. Scarvers, who finished with 30 points, went four-for-four from the line thereafter; Vilseck was zero-for-four over the same span and just one-for-six in the game’s final seven minutes. For the game, Vilseck was a dismal nine-of-24 from the line.

Calvin Hickman and Trey Adkins led Vilseck with 13 points each; their teammate Daniel Arroyo added 10. Andrew Stern chalked up 12 points for K-town.

Top-seeded Heidelberg ended all the Thursday morning nail-biting, however, with a three-pointer-fueled 43-31 victory over No. 8 International School of Brussels.

Kevin Gray, who scored 13 points, canned three long-range shots; Maurice Simon connected on two long balls, and Mezzan El-Sayed one in Heidelberg’s 22nd straight victory.

The Lions defeated Region III rival Vilseck 59-39 in Thursday’s late game and take on on K-town in their pool-play finale Friday morning.

Ramstein reversed the seedings in their second game Thursday, downing Patch 43-33. They’ll take on Wiesbaden at 1 p.m. Friday at the police academy in their final pool game; Patch is scheduled to face Lakenheath at 11:45 a.m. at McCully Barracks for their pool-play finale. The D-I pool champs are to play the runners-up of the opposite pool in Friday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinals at Wiesbaden Airfield and High School.

In the Division III event at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, the class of the division, top-seeded Rota and No. 2 Bamberg, remained on a collision course for Saturday’s final by outclassing the opposition.

Rota, behind 16 points from 2011 Stars and Stripes player of the year Tre’von Owens and 10 more from Niko Fichera, thumped Incirlik 55-15. The Admirals are to play No. 6 Lajes in Friday’s 1:30 p.m. semifinal at Wiesbaden Army Airfield.

Bamberg, which is headed for Friday’s 1:30 p.m. semifinal at Wiesbaden High School against Sigonella, unleashed a 15-0 run over the first 5:27 of the third quarter en route to a 57-27 triumph over Lajes.

The energetic and athletic Barons held Lajes, which averaged 56 points per game in their opening three victories, to 11-of-42 from the floor and just four points in each of the final two periods.

The Barons, meanwhile, rode a game-high 15 points from freshman Jeremy Morgan and 14 from 6-foot-4 junior Antony Cortright to the victory. In contrast with the Lajes shooters, Cortright was eight-of-11 from the floor and Morgan five-of-six.

It helped Morgan’s field-goal percentage, however, that two of his shots were layups he made after stealing the ball at half-court.

“I got a couple of steals,” he said, “and a couple of finishes.”

Morgan was one of three freshmen who accounted for 27 of Bamberg’s points.

“We played well,” said Bamberg coach Tim Smith. “Our young players have really come along.”

Staff writer Dan Blottenberger contributed to this report.

bryanr@estripes.osd.mil