"This was like a heavyweight prize fight.  We had to keep trading punches with these guys," was the way Lenoir City Head Coach Kevin Windle described his team's 79-71 win at Knoxville West Tuesday night.
Keeping with the boxing analogy, the Panthers won the first six rounds, played rope-a-dope the next five rounds and then delivered the knockout punch in the 12th round.

The Panthers jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead an then expanded it to 8-2 early in the game, but West fought back to within a point less than two minutes later.
Lenoir City won the quarter from there, however, outscoring West by two to lead 20-17 after one.
The second quarter went much like the first as the Panthers built a six point lead, only to see the Rebels fight back to within two points with 4:23 left in the half.

However, the difference in the quarters is that the Panthers took a bit of an advantage into the break.  With West down just three points, Jared Hilton hit a couple of free throws and then star forward Tyler Hood took over, scoring six straight and putting Lenoir City ahead 40-29 with 1:23 left in the half.

Hood and Dylan Moore combined for four of the next seven points to close out the half with Lenoir City up 44-32.
The lead only continued to grow in the third for the Panthers, as they led by 21 twice in the early going of the third period.  The Rebels wouldn't give in, though, and counterpunched Lenoir City late in the third to fight back to within 15, at 58-43.

West's dominance continued into the fourth period as the hosts reeled off 10 of the first 12 points of the quarter to bring them back within seven at 60-53.
The teams traded a couple of punches until West again hit a run, scoring eight of the next 10 points to close the gap to five.  Again the Panthers, behind buckets by Hilton and Dylan Powers, built a nearly 10-point lead, but again the Rebels fought back - this time within four at 70-66.  That's as close as the Rebels would get, however, as the Panthers scored nine of the next 14 points to seal their win.

The win gives the Panthers the tiebreaker in District 4(3A) over West, keeping them in sole possession of second place in the district.
They'll look to keep that sole possession Friday night when they return home to face Maryville.  Game time is set for 8 p.m. 

They'll also travel to Loudon Saturday.

Information for this story provided by Sammie Dunlap