Athens Bible School coach Rusty Brand had been looking for some heart and fight as the Trojans struggled through a six-game losing streak earlier this season. He certainly found it Thursday night, as ABS overcame a 14-point, third-quarter deficit to steal a 63-62 win over Oakwood Adventist.

Braden Suggs’ two free throws with 7.4 seconds left gave the Trojans their only lead of the second half, and Athens Bible hung on to win after Oakwood missed a shot at the buzzer.

“I’ve just been looking for some heart,” Brand said. “We started the season really well and then had a six-game skid. That takes a lot out of you. We’ve really been practicing hard the last couple of weeks and talking about how do we come back. How do we stay focused, how do we continue to fight through it? Well, we did all that tonight, and I’m proud of them.”

Athens Bible trailed 62-59 with 1:30 remaining when Suggs made a shot to pull the Trojans to within one. The Trojans’ next two possessions ended with a missed shot and a turnover, but Oakwood missed two consecutive free throws that would have given them a larger advantage.

Oakwood’s final free throw attempt came with 14 seconds remaining. It missed, and Athens Bible collected the rebound. Suggs quickly raced the ball up the court, drove to the basket and drew a blocking foul with 7.4 seconds remaining.

With a potential win on the line, a calm Suggs swished both free throws to give the Trojans a lead they would not relinquish.

“Down the stretch, free throws were huge for us,” Brand said. “Braden’s last two were clutch. That’s really hard to do, but he did it. It was a big win for us.”

Athens Bible led 19-14 after one quarter, but fouls quickly caught up with the Trojans. Three of their tallest players, including leading scorer Kacen Pierce, had to sit for large portions of the second quarter due to foul trouble. Oakwood took advantage.

The Mustangs outscored the Trojans 22-7 in the second quarter and took a 36-26 lead into halftime.

“Foul trouble absolutely killed us in the first half,” Brand said. “We lost really our three big guys. We’ve got some younger guys who are smaller and play well, but in a game this physical, we’ve just got to have a little bit of size. We got Kacen back in the game, and he just means a lot to our team.”

Oakwood took its largest lead of the game at 49-35 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. Athens Bible cut the lead to 51-41 after three quarters and outscored Oakwood 22-11 in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.

Pierce scored 20 points for the Trojans to lead the way offensively, while Ty Dutton had 13 and Suggs scored 11, including the critical final two.

Athens Bible improved to 2-3 in Class 1A, Area 15 play. Both wins were over Oakwood.

“We needed this win for sure,” Brand said. “We’ve got a pretty tough schedule the rest of the way, so that was a big one for us.”

Girls

Oakwood Adventist 35, Athens Bible 27

Athens Bible fell behind in the first quarter and never came back in an eight-point loss to Oakwood Adventist Thursday night.

Oakwood jumped out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter, and although Athens Bible outscored the Mustangs the rest of the way, the 10-point deficit was too large to overcome.

ABS held Oakwood to single-digit points in each of the final three quarters, but couldn’t manage to get enough offense to make a charge.

Leighton Barksdale led Athens Bible with nine points, while Molly Chumbley scored seven.

Oakwood was led by Caileigh Byrd with 11 points.