North Central entered Tuesday night’s game against Crispus Attucks with an 8-0 record. The Panthers had not been in a tight game with under two minutes to play all season. That changed against Attucks.

Crispus Attucks was not intimidated by North Central. The Tigers took the action right to North Central. Shots weren’t falling for Attucks in the game but Nike SIbande and Micah Poole had them on the right track by the end of the first period.

Senior Emmanuel Little has been fantastic for North Central throughout the season. He started to take over the game in the second quarter. His dunk to open the scoring in the second frame set the tone for the Panthers. Little scored 10 points in the quarter.

North Central took a 12-point lead into halftime. Little helped expand that lead with his play early in the third quarter. He scored 12 points in the first four minutes of the half to push North Central’s lead to 18 points. The high water mark for North Central was a 19-point lead.

There was a bit of a scare for North Central late in the third quarter. UCLA-bound forward Kris Wilkes hurt his arm and went to the bench. He came back into the game to start the fourth, but Wilkes only scored one point after the injury.

Down 17 points to begin the fourth quarter, it looked like Attucks was about to be knocked out. Derrick Briscoe scored back to back buckets to start the quarter. Then Nike Sibande started to get going for Attucks. Sibande was solid in the first three quarters but stepped it up a notch in the fourth.

It was Sibande’s four-point play followed by another three-pointer that applied game pressure to North Central. The Panthers displayed some shakiness at that point with three turnovers in the next four possessions. That helped Attucks come all the way back to tie the game on a Sibande free throw with under a minute to play.

With the game tied, Mateo Rivera found a gap in the Attucks defense and went to the basket for a relatively easy layup. Rivera did it on both ends. He grabbed the rebound off an Attucks miss with 16 seconds left then hit two free throws to essentially seal the game for North Central. Rivera finished with 17 points.

North Central escaped with the 75-71 victory. Emmanuel Little finished with 29 points and 16 rebounds. Nike Sibande ended with 28 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.