woodville &8212; Centreville Academy survived a close, back and forth tournament show down against Wilkinson County Christian Academy Friday night, winning 56-52 in the seventh annual New Year&8217;s Shoot-Out at WCCA.

The first quarter of play set the pace for most of the game. Both teams swapped buckets throughout the first quarter, but the Centreville Tigers defense closed out the quarter by limiting the Rams to five points in the last three and a half minutes to take a 15-14 lead into the start of the second quarter.

In the second quarter, the Rams used full-court man-to-man pressure to cause several Tiger turnovers and refrain the lead. The Rams entered the locker room at halftime with a 27-26 lead.

Both teams started the second half similar to the first by exchanging several early buckets, but the Tigers eventually pulled ahead by six points and the Rams were forced to call a time out with 1:26 to play in the third. After the time out, the Rams cut the Tigers&8217; lead to two points, as Centreville closed out the quarter leading 42-40.

Centreville started off the final quarter with an 8-0 run and seemed to be on their way to putting the game out of reach, but the Rams refused to go away. In the last half of the fourth quarter, the Rams cut the lead Tigers&8217; lead to four points, but their efforts came up short as the Tigers came away with the 56-52 victory to improve to 7-1 on the season.

With the loss, the Rams fall to 1-8 overall for the season.

Centreville head coach Jason Horne said even though his team came away with the victory, he said he felt that the Tigers got out-hustled and started the game off flat.

He said his team did pick things up and played better defensively in the second half.

&8220;We just have to do better in all the phases of our game,&8221; Horne said.

WCCA head coach Ray Olive said his team used full court pressure to try and wear down the Tigers.

&8220;We knew we could not play a half court game against them,&8221; Olive said.

&8220;We exchanged shots with them and kept things at the end, and that&8217;s what we wanted.&8221;

Olive said his team has used the holiday tournament to come together and establish its identity.

&8220;We feel we can run with most folks. We just have to learn to finish games,&8221; he said.