Verbena made the necessary plays down the stretch and defeated Maplesville 69-66 in a nail-bitter during the first round of the county basketball tournament.

Neither team held an extended lead for very long as scoring runs were traded back and forth throughout the game.

Verbena led 50-47 entering the fourth quarter, but Terence Dunlap of Maplesville quickly went to work and gave his team a one-point lead following a pull-up jumper and a pair of drives to the basket.

However, Verbena’s Tristan Short connected on a reverse layup and fellow senior Juwan Tyus scored six unanswered points including four from the free throw line to regain the lead 64-55 with less than three minutes to go in the game.

“They [senior class] have a big impact on all of us,” Walls said. “Without them we wouldn’t be where we’re at.”

Maplesville did not quit and instead began a furious comeback sparked by a 3-pointer from Grayson Bice and fueled by a string of six points from Jeremy Williams, including a shot from long range that tied the game at 64 with 40 seconds remaining.

Down one with the ball in the waning seconds, Verbena moved the ball around and found Tyus down low for a bucket and a foul. He missed the free throw, but teammate Imani Walls was there for the rebound and put back to make it a three-point game.

“I heard coach scream ‘box out’ and I was able to get under Terence and grab the ball,” Walls said. “At the end of the day it comes down to being mindful of the fundamentals,” Walls said.

Dunlap had a look at a 3-pointer that would have sent it to overtime, but it was off the mark and the buzzer sounded.

“It’s all about having bragging rights throughout the county,” Maplesville junior Daryl Odom said. “It’s not how we wanted it to go, but we can definitely learn from this loss moving forward.”

Tyus finished with a game-high 28 points and Dunlap tallied 22, as both players consistently came up big in key moments.

The game was tied 34-all at the halftime break.

Verbena will face Chilton County High School in the second round of the county tournament on Friday at 8 p.m.