The Calvary Lutheran Lions trailed by as much as 15 in the second half Friday against Missouri Military Academy, but a stiff defense and free throws down the stretch led to a 57-51 win.
A 3-pointer for Bayern-Erdine Oldckbayar of M.M.A. with 3:37 remaining in the third quarter made it 42-27.
But the Lions slowly cut into the deficit.
A pair of Alex Flannigan free throws with 2:08 remaining in the third cut it to 13 and a Luke Allen basket a minute later got the Lions within 11.
"I'm really proud of the kids for not giving up," Calvary coach Mark Buffington said. "They could have come out in that second half and just said, "You know what, near the end of the season, let's just pack it in,' and they didn't."
A pair of free throws from Matt Allen made it 44-35 for the Colonels heading into the fourth quarter.
Foul trouble for M.M.A. allowed Calvary to get to the line often and the Lions shot 19-of-25 at the line.
"We shot really well from the free-throw line," Buffington said. "That was a big key, too."
The Lions scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to three with 5:58 remaining.
Schlichting scored inside, and Cal Kolzow and Flannigan each added a pair of free throws during the spurt.
"We've had spells like that where we go into a funk," Buffington said of the first half. "I've seen us do that two or three times this year, having a half like that and just be a completely different team in the second half."
A Colin Bernskoetter steal and layup tied the game at 46 with 3:42 remaining and Kolzow's free throw with 3:26 remaining gave Calvary its first lead since 3-2 at the 5:08 mark of the first quarter.
"We went to a little different press in the second half and that helped a lot," Buffington said. "They handled some of our pressure in the first half and we got them in foul trouble. That helped."
M.M.A was within 49-48 with 1:10 remaining after a steal and layup for Rob Shields, but Calvary made 6-of-8 free throws the rest of the way and M.M.A only managed a 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining.
Early on, Calvary wasn't able to get the ball through the basket, except from beyond the arc.
The Lions' first nine points came from 3-point range, but nothing was going in inside the arc.
M.M.A was able to build its lead to 35-20 by halftime.
"They played more like we're capable of playing in that second half," Buffington said. "Give M.M.A credit, they came out and played extremely well in the first half. We couldn't stop them and we couldn't hit anything. It's one of those nights."
Luke Allen was able to lead Calvary's offensive attack with 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He also paced the Lions with nine rebounds.
Flannigan was 8-of-10 from the free-throw line on his way to 13 points as Calvary snapped a two-game losing skid. Calvary (8-11) hopes Friday's comeback victory can help the team heading into Monday's game at Prairie Home.
"Hopefully this will give us a little bit of momentum going into that," Buffington said.
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