In a game that went down to the wire it was the No. 3 Central-Hayneville Lions who came out on top, as they defeated the Selma Saints 45-42 Tuesday at Wallace Community College-Selma.

Lions’ head coach Toriano Baker said his team’s tough defense was the reason they prevailed.

“The key to victory tonight was pretty much what we’ve been harping on all season and that’s defense and hustle,” Baker said. “We can live by defense and hustle  and not getting the guys so much focused on offense. We have a lot of key guys who can score in many different ways, but we really did a good job tonight containing those guys (Selma) and really working on defense.”

The Saints (16-11, 4-2) held a 35-31 lead early in the final quarter, but the Lions tied the game at 35-35 on back-to-back baskets from Michael Rush and Wendell Snow.

The Lions (22-4, ranked No. 3 in Class 2A) took a 37-35 lead with 6:06 remaining as Snow scored in the paint.

Selma responded quickly, as Quinterrius Rogers laid it in on the fast break to make it a 37-37 game with 5:52 left to play.

Rush hit one of two free throws to put the Lions up by one with 5:33 remaining, but it was Rogers again who came out big for the Saints, scoring on a layup and giving Selma a 39-38 lead with 5:18 left. Snow went one of two from the line on the Lions next possession and tied the game again at 39-39 with 4:55 left. The Saints missed on their next possession, as the Lions used up the clock and finally found Snow underneath the basket, who scored, but missed the free throw after being fouled making it a 41-39 game with 1:00 remaining.

The Saints had a chance to tie, but the Lions stole Selma’s inbounds pass and Central’s Rafael Mickle scored on a fast break layup and made the score 43-39 with 0:39 left.