Groton — And so their ride on the rainbow played on Friday night, electrifying the delirious student section, the overall full house at Fitch, enjoying the trip to the state semifinals.

Wheeler High, The Little School Who Can, snapped a 38-38 tie late in the fourth quarter Friday night and defeated No. 17 Foran 45-43, earning a trip to Tuesday’s CIAC Division IV semifinals.

No. 9 Wheeler will play No. 4 Cheney Tech in the semifinals at a neutral site to be announced.

Senior Kyle Kessler snapped the tie with a 3-pointer, followed by free throws from Kessler and Keith Zardies to seal it.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s by one or one million,” Wheeler coach Stephen Bailey said. “My guys know how to deal with adversity.”

Deondre Bransford led the Lions (20-6) with 15 points and 13 rebounds, frequently inviting Foran coach Ian Kirkpatrick to wonder aloud, “No. 5 (Bransford) is killing us.”

“We played Waterford with Juan (Morel) 6-10. We played Stonington with Alex (Novak), 6-8. Height doesn’t bother me,” Bransford said.

Foran (12-9) led by 16 points from freshman John Johnson, had a six-point lead late in the first half.

To underscore the magnitude of Wheeler’s ongoing accomplishments, consider that Foran, with an enrollment more than three times Wheeler’s size (765-222 per the National Center for Education Statistics), played a very competitive schedule during the regular season within the Southern Connecticut Conference, versus Notre Dame of West Haven (the state’s No. 1 ranked team) twice, Hamden twice and Xavier twice.

The average enrollment of all SCC schools on Foran's schedule this year is 1,064, nearly double the average enrollment of Eastern Connecticut Conference schools on Wheeler's schedule (539).

In addition to the size discrepancy between the schools, several Wheeler parents were disgruntled with the idea the game was moved from the home “gymatorium” (capacity 400) on the Wheeler campus to Fitch (capacity 1,200). They sent a letter to CIAC Associate Executive Director Gregg Simon.

“Based on your seeding Wheeler has earned HOME court advantage and deserves to play at HOME not at a bigger gym,” the letter read in part. “Part of the magic of a small school making a run is their crowd and the atmosphere their gym brings. The only thing we can think of is that the CIAC is putting ticket sales and money ahead of the kids.”

The Fitch gym was full for this game, however, with more than 1,000 fans.

“Our goal,” Bailey said, “was to get to the second week of the state tournament.

m.dimauro@theday.com