A packed house saw the Paint Branch Panthers and Springbrook Blue Devils battle it out in a 4A East showdown on Friday, January 4th. The matchup did not disappoint, though the outcome did, as the Blue Devils managed to squeak out a 76-75 win.

Throughout the first half, the Panthers played great defense against Springbrook with multiple blocked shots and fastbreak points. Springbrook looked fatigued as the Panthers made many hustle plays.

In the 3rd quarter, Paint Branch stretched the lead to 22 points. At that point the game seemed decided, but the Blue Devils slowly started to charge back with jump shots and tough defense.

Springbrook continued to fight and found themselves down just four at  75-71 with under 4 minutes to go in the game. With less than a minute to go Paint Branch had the ball and was up 1. Running down the shot clock, the Panthers could not convert and  Springbrook guard Timitrius Whitney-Hawkins took it the other way and hit a layup in traffic on a fastbreak to put the Blue Devils up by 1. Paint Branch took a time out to regroup for a final shot

Out of the timeout the Panthers found sophomore Juan Bell  open in the corner for a game-winning three, but didn’t fall. A putback attempt wouldn’t go either and the Blue Devils escaped with the win.