LEBANON, Tenn. — With its once comfortable lead now a nervous three-point advantage, Grace Academy needed a little defensive help and a little luck Monday night.
After Friendship Christian’s Hardie Sorrels missed from point-blank range, his rebound and second shot attempt was blocked by Grace’s Clayton McMasters. And when Sorrels then signaled for a timeout, with his team out of them, the ensuing technical foul resulted in the Golden Eagles salting away the Class A state sectional at the free-throw line.
Grace escaped with a 55-49 victory.
“We tried to make it a lot harder on ourselves than we needed to at the end,” said Grace coach Jon Mattheiss, who has led the program to the state tournament four of the last seven seasons.
Grace had an eight-point lead with less than a minute remaining, but two turnovers and five quick points by the Commanders’ Lee Maasen cut that to 52-49 with 29 seconds remaining. But Friendship missed two attempts to potentially tie or get within one point.