MCBEE - Wins have been hard to come by this season for a retooling McBee High School boys basketball team.

But Saturday night at home against North Central, the Panthers put together a win that could be a sign of things to come for a young team finding its way under a new coach. McBee battled from behind most of the night.

But tenacious defense finally paid off and the Panthers sent an exuberant home crowd home happy with a 70-67 victory.

“We dug ourselves a hole early, and we had to battle all night long,” said first-year McBee coach Omoro King. “But our guys stuck with the plan, and our defense won it for us tonight.”

The Panthers scored the opening bucket of the game on a tip-in by Javon Muldrow. The two teams traded baskets over the first half of the opening quarter.

Knights put together a 15-2 run over the remainder of the quarter.

North Central opened the second quarter with five straight points for a 25-10 lead. Altogether, the Knights kept McBee off the scoreboard for more than five minutes.

Little by little, the Panthers began to scratch their way back into the game.

By halftime, McBee had whittled the deficit to 31-24.

The Panthers picked up where they left off in the third quarter. Outscoring the Knights 6-2 over the opening two minutes, they cut the North Central lead to three at 33-30.

But North Central had an answer. The Knights went on a 7-0 run sparked by a Tevin Alexander drive to the basket, and pushed their lead back out to 10 at 40-30 with 3:31 left in the third.

McBee then put together one of its best stretches of the game. Over the next two minutes, the Panthers outscored the Knights 14-3 to take their first lead since the first quarter at 44-43. Greg McDonald, who led all scorers with 28 points, was the sparkplug for the Panthers with 10 of those points.

But this was a game of seesaw runs, and then it was the Knights’ turn. North Central closed the period with a 9-3 run to take a 52-47 lead into the decisive fourth quarter.

McBee went on the offensive again coming into the final period. After North Central opened the frame with a pair of Emmanuel Moorer free throws, the Panthers responded with a 10-0 spurt. Again, it was McDonald serving as the catalyst, as the McBee forward had seven of the 10 points in the run.

With just under five minutes remaining, the Panthers held a slim 57-56 advantage. They pushed their way out to a 67-61 lead with just under a minute left.

But North Central was not ready to throw in the towel just yet. With 43.7 seconds left, an Alexander tip-in drew the Knights to within three at 67-64. Alexander drew a foul and the and-1, on the play, but missed the free throw. He got his own rebound, laid the ball in and was fouled again. This time he converted the charity toss to tie the game at 67 with 37.7 seconds left.

After a timeout, the Panthers got the ball into the frontcourt and Santonio Wright was fouled with 20.3 seconds left. Wright missed both free throws, but McBee caught a break when a lane violation was called on North Central on the second charity toss. Given another chance to put the Panthers up, Wright drained the extra free throw to put McBee up 68-67.

North Central got the ball into the frontcourt and called time out with 13.7 seconds left. An ill-advised shot was rebounded by the Panthers, and McBee got the ball the length of the court for a Rashad Reed layup with 1.8 seconds left.

A final desperation North Central half-court shot fell well short, and the Panthers and their fans had a home-court win to celebrate.

In addition to McDonald’s 28 points the Panthers got 15 points from Jonathan Dixon and nine from Devonte Wright.

North Central was led by Alexander with 18 points.