COCOLAMUS — The Juniata Indians and East Juniata Tigers added another chapter to their storied rivalry on Saturday night in front of a large crowd of Juniata County fans at the East Juniata High School gymnasium in Cocolamus.

The Indians defeated East Juniata in the final minutes of a barnburner to take home a hard-fought 53-44 Tri-Valley League win.

“They really hung in there,” Juniata head coach Al Ream said. “We always talk to the kids about how basketball is in spurts. You’ll have your spurt and they’ll have theirs. They had their spurt at the beginning of the game.

“We fought back and got the lead,” Ream added. “We had one right before halftime. We held it and they came back. Then we came back. We talk about that in practice a lot. You’re going to tough days, you’re going to have slow days you just got to take what the defense is giving you.”

Heading into the final stanza, the Indians (5-6, TVL 3-3) were holding fast to a 40-32 cushion as the intensity increased another notch from the previous three quarters.

“This is my second-year coaching, and I never would have dreamed that I had the amount of heart I have on this team, night in and night out,” said East Juniata coach Chris Lenig. “We had a game the other day we were down by 40 at one point. They battled back. You would have thought it was a tie game for a state championship.

“Every second that group is on the floor they give it their all,” Lenig added. “You can’t ask them to do any more than that.”

Juniata struck first when Jasper Shepps, who finished the night with 16 points, got the scoring started with a drive and bucket in the lane.

The Tigers (3-9, 1-5) had an answer for Shepp’s bucket as they were able to work the ball into the hands of Sam Kopacki, who lined up his three-point shot from downtown, cutting the deficit to 42-35 with 6:28 left.

East Juniata’s defense then forced an Indian turnover. This time, Jaden May took the ball to the basket and get fouled. May hit the shot from the charity stripe, continuing to fuel the Tigers’ momentum as they trailed only 42-38.

Another Juniata turnover on the following possession put the ball back in May’s hands. He was fouled again and hit one-of-two from the charity stripe, making it just a 3-point Indian lead.

The Indians’ Caden Swailes was fouled and connected on both free throws to extend Juniata’s lead back to five.

Wrett Smith, who finished his night with a game-high 20 points, sent the East Juniata fans into a frenzy as he drained a triple, cutting the deficit to just two points with 3:46 remaining.

Shepps and Smith then exchanged free throws before Swailes hit a clutch runner in traffic to extend Juniata’s lead to 47-43.

May battled back to take a foul in his drive in the lane, he was successful by hitting 1-of-2.

But things started to unravel for the Tigers as they were called for a technical. From there, the Indians scored four of the final six points to solidify the victory.

In the first, Swailes put the first points on the board with a field goal to get the contest going.

East Juniata rallied back to tie things at two picking up a layup and a free throw attempt by Kopacki. The shot was good but the free throw attempt was unsuccessful, tying it two.

But the rest of the quarter belonged to East Juniata as they went on a dominating 14-2 run. In that run, Kopacki tallied eight, while Smith had three.

The Tigers took the lead going into the second quarter, 16-11, only to see the Juniata defense shut down the Tiger shooters in the second, allowing only five points.

Juniata put together an impressive rally, taking a 24-21 lead into the lockerroom.

Both teams play today as the Indians head to Halifax, while East Juniata hosts Susquenita.

Juniata 53, East Juniata 44

JUN 11 16 13 13 – 53

EJ 16 5 11 12 – 44

Scoring: JUN – Jaden Nealman 1 0-0 2, Nick Reed 3 0-0 6, Jasper Shepps 5 5-6 16, Rick Guante 2 0-0 5, Caden Swailes 7 6-9 20. Totals 18 11-15 53. EJ – Jaden May 4 4-7 12, Sam Kopacki 4 1-3 12, Wrett Smith – 8 2-3 20 Totals 16 7-13 44.

Played but didn’t score: JUN – None. EJ – Evan Hubley 0 0-0 0, Silas Strickhouse 0 0-0 0, Nathan Carolus 0 0-0 0 .

Three-point shots: JUN – Shepps, Guante. EJ – Kopacki, 3, Smith 2 .