DEKALB – Heidelberg Academy girls’ basketball coach Anna Butler spent most of the final five minutes of her team’s MPSA District 5-A Tournament opener with Sylva-Bay Academy pacing in front of the Lady Rebels’ bench like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. And with good reason.



Third-seeded Heidelberg had seen a 28-25 lead going into the fourth quarter turn into an elimination battle tied at 31, 33 and again at 35.



While Heidelberg would eventually take a 42-40 victory to keep its season alive, Butler’s nerves weren’t the only ones on edge.



A three-point play by Sylva-Bay’s Laura McCormick with 1:38 remaining gave the sixth-seeded Lady Saints a 38-35 lead and a solid shot at a first-round upset.



Heidelberg’s Jennifer Barnett cut the deficit to 38-37 with a basket in the lane nine seconds later.



Following a Sylva-Bay turnover, Heidelberg’s Monica Cranford got an offensive rebound and fed Anna Welch for the go-ahead basket from the free-throw line with 48 seconds left.



Ashton Beach made 3-of-4 free throws over a 10-second span to extend Heidelberg’s lead to 42-38 with only 4.9 seconds to play and a basket by Kayla Bailey at the horn left the Lady Saints still trailing by two points.



“It was closer than I expected and too close for comfort,” Butler said following the win. “It was scary. Thank God for free throws.



“We have a lot that are sick and maybe we just didn’t come ready to play. Sylva-Bay played good though.



“Monica had two big offensive rebounds that helped us and the free throws at the end by Ashton really helped too. Turnovers hurt us. We had lots of turnovers, probably around 20.”



Welch led Heidelberg, 18-10, with a dozen points. Barnett and Sarah Monk both scored nine, Beach had seven, and Cranford added five.



Sylva-Bay, which finished 12-15, got 20 points from Katie Jo Windham, 11 from McCormick and seven from Megan Gable.



Wayne girls 39



Central 33



The Lady Jaguars squandered a 10-point lead early in the second half, then outscored Central 13-4 over the final eight minutes to advance to Thursday’s semifinal round.



Leading 8-3 after one quarter, Wayne held an 18-10 halftime lead, then scored the first two points of the third quarter to take a 20-10 advantage.



Central stormed back, scoring 15 of the next 17 points to go up 25-22 on a basket by Jessica Stokes with 2:11 left in the third quarter.



The Lady Vikings led by three (29-26) when the third period ended.



Wayne took a 32-31 lead with 4:27 to play, then made 5-of-9 free throws over the last 39 seconds to improve to 12-16.



Adrian Cooley led No. 4 seed Wayne with 21 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Fonda Cooley scored eight for the Lady Jaguars.



Fifth-seeded Central, 12-14, got 11 points from Kelsey Cade, seven each from Stokes and Jordan Taylor and six from Katie Moore.



Wayne boys 50



Sylva-Bay 34



The Jaguars scored 14 points in both the first and second quarters in taking a 28-18 lead into halftime.



Wayne led 40-27 to start the fourth quarter.



Jantzen Perry scored 15 points and Sion Brown had 14 to lead fifth-seeded Wayne, 8-17.



No. 4 seed Sylva-Bay, 14-12, got 14 points from Jonathan Bailey.



Heidelberg boys 87



Russell Christian 18



The top-seeded Rebels scored the game’s first 22 points in crushing the No. 8 seed Warriors, who finished their inaugural season with a 2-16 mark. Both of Russell’s wins came against Union Academy of Georgetown.



Heidelberg led 35-5 at halftime and was up 63-11 to start the fourth quarter.



Joe Armour led Heidelberg, 18-7, with 19 points. Colby Reeves and Derek Beach both scored 16, Trae Barker had 15, and Donovan Windham and Casey Stewart both had seven.



Brock Chaney led Russell with eight points.