Heart stopper

IOTA -- In a heart stopping thriller, the Pine Prairie Panthers scored nine of the last 12 points over the final 2:18 to take a 63-62 win over the Iota Bulldogs Friday night.
With the win, the Panthers improved to 19-7 overall and remain in a tie for first place in District 5-3A at 5-1. Pine Prairie will travel to Crowley Tuesday for a showdown with the Gents, who is also 5-1 in league play.
The game did not start well for the Panthers. Iota opened up the game with four straight points and continued the hot hand offensively, taking a 9-2 lead with 3:37 to go in the first quarter.
Pine Prairie picked up a basket by Isaiah Payne to cut back into the lead. However, the Bulldogs ran off eight points in a row to grow their advantage to 17-4 at the 1:15 mark.
Payne sliced that edge down to 10 points, 17-7, hitting a three-point bucket with 27 seconds to go in the period. That is how the quarter ended when the horn sounded.
A three-point basket from Jordan Ardoin to begin the second quarter allowed the Panthers to make it a 17-10 game. The two teams exchanged points, including buckets from beyond the arc over the next two minutes.
With the score 26-20 in favor of Iota and 4:25 left to go before half, the Bulldogs knocked down back-to-back shots to open up a 10 point advantage. Pine Prairie slowly chipped away at the Iota lead, scoring the next seven points, including another three-pointer from Ardoin, to bring the Panthers to within three points at the 1:23 mark.
Iota sank a free throw 30 seconds later to go up by four points. But, Payne would not let the Bulldogs get the last score of the half, as he buried a bucket from beyond the arc with 40 ticks left on the clock to make it a 31-30 game heading into the locker room.
The momentum that the Panthers had at the end of the second period disappeared in a hurry at the start of the third quarter. Iota scored seven of the first eight points to open up a 38-31 lead with just 2:19 gone in the period.
Once again, Pine Prairie slowly brought themselves back into the game behind Payne’s six point run. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs found a way to regain some distance from the Panthers, taking a 49-43 lead as the third quarter came to a close.
Over the first 50 seconds of the final period, Pine Prairie managed to bring Iota’s advantage back down to three, 50-47. Smooth shooting from the Bulldogs gave them a 53-47 lead just 40 seconds later.
A two-point basket from Pine Prairie’s Kyler Carson, added with a three-point play from JJ Sims made it a 53-52 contest in favor of Iota with 5:01 to go in the game. With the game inching closer to its conclusion, the Bulldogs managed to stay one step ahead of the Panthers, even owning a five point edge with 2:25 left.
The clubs matched each other point for point over the next 53 seconds. At the 1:27 mark, and Pine Prairie trailing 60-