CAREY — Colonel Crawford still has a slim chance for at least a share of the Northern 10 Athletic Conference title.

Carey is playing for tournament seeding.

To keep their flickering hopes alive, the Eagles had to rally late on the road to salvage a 54-51 win over the Blue Devils.

Carey had led at every quarter break, but Colonel Crawford hit 12 free throws in the fourth quarter and Carter Valentine scored six points, including a crucial stick-back off an offensive rebound with six seconds left.

“That’s the difference between winning and losing sometimes is being able to make foul shots,” Carey coach Jamie Young said. “We were five of 13. We had opportunities against a team like that, I’ll take that. I just wish we could have capitalized for the kids’ morale if nothing else because we could have used a big win going into the tournament.”

For the Eagles, it was a matter of maneuvering around Blue Devils’ big man Hayden Stone to stay in the game, which called for a double-team on defense most of the night.

“We didn’t do a good job out of that double,” Colonel Crawford coach David Sheldon said. “Out of that double-team, you’re guarding three on four and we didn’t drop a few times and they got some back-said layups. They’ve got shooters and we knew that. You pick your poison against a team like that when they’ve got (6-foot-8) in the middle.”

Carey (8-7, 6-5 N10) got off to a 9-7 lead in the first quarter. Stone scored seven of his team-high 17 points in the frame. The Blue Devils added one to their lead in the second period, though the Colonel Crawford (13-3, 10-2) trailed by six — its biggest deficit of the night — before trimming it to 23-20 at halftime.

“After the way we played on Saturday versus Mohawk (a 66-64 loss), we came back and we were refocused and it showed and we had chances to win,” Young said. “The foul line wasn’t nice to us tonight.”

Each team hit just four of 12 shots in the third quarter allowing the Blue Devils to maintain their lead, 37-34, by period’s end.

The Eagles managed to tie the game several times in the fourth quarter, the last at 46-46 on a pair of free throws by Jordan Fenner and finally got the lead for the first time with two more free tosses by Fenner with 1:05 left in the game.

Carey regained the lead on a basket by Ian Yeater before Carter grabbed the rebound on a Fenner miss and put it in to give Crawford the lead for good with six seconds remaining.

“We never panicked,” Sheldon said. “They had the lead until six seconds to go. The big thing is we made free throws in the fourth.”

The Eagles were 12 of 12 from the line, eight of which came from Fenner, who finished with a game-high 19 points. Gavin Feichtner added 12 and Reis Walker had seven rebounds.

Yeater had 14 points to second Stone’s 17 for the Blue Devils and Stone hauled down 11 rebounds.

“That was a really good high school basketball game to watch, I would think, as a fan,” Young said. “Two tough teams just battling it out. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Crawford and I’m just glad our kids came out and played the way they did.”

“This is the toughest part of the season, I always say,” Sheldon said. “It is the grind before the tournament and our guys found a way. To get to 13 wins, I’m proud of this group. They stuck together and that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Colonel Crawford also won the junior varsity game, 51-37. Mason McKibben had 19 points and Drayton Burkhart added 13 to lead the Eagles. Landen Kemereley had eight points for Carey.

Box score

Colonel Crawford      7     13     14     20 — 54

Carey                             9      14     14     14 — 51

Stats

Colonel Crawford (13-3, 10-2 N10): Shots 16-44; 3-pt shots 5-13 (Jordan Fenner 2, Gavin Feichtner 2, Mason Studer); Free throws 17-20; Rebounds 33 (Reis Walker 7); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Mason Studer 1 2 5, Reis Walker 1 0 2, Jordan Fenner 4 9 19, Carter Valentine 3 2 8, Gavin Feichtner 4 2 12, Chase Walker 3 2 8.

Carey (8-7, 6-5 N10): Shots 20-51; 3-pt. shots 6-18 (Hayden Nash 2, Isaiah Hoepf 2, Ian Yeater 2); Free throws 5-13; Rebounds 29 (Hayden Stone 11); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Hayden Nash 2 0 6, Hayden Stone 6 5 17, Isaiah Hoepf 2 0 6, Cade Crawford 2 0 6, Spencer Baldridge 1 0 2, Ian Yeater 6 0 14.

JV: Colonel Crawford 51-37.