HOWE- The Lakeland Christian Academy boys basketball team closed out its regular season Tuesday night by nipping host Howe 57-55.

Chris Maron came up huge down the stretch with a pair of steals and layups in the final 1:23 to give the Cougars the win.

LCA trailed 47-46 entering the final quarter before outscoring the hosts 11-8 in the fourth stanza for the victory. The Cougars led 20-16 after the first quarter and 34-32 at halftime.

Zarek Finley led the way for LCA, which improves to 7-14, with 26 points and eight rebounds.

Collin Price had nine points and four rebounds and Maron netted eight points for the Cougars. Chris Silveus had six points and five steals for the winners, while Billy Pitts had four points and Calvin Prinsen and Noah Cole each finished with two.

LCA won despite shooting just 8-of-21 from the free throw line.

“We were far from perfect tonight, as we were plagued with bad free throw shooting and poor rebounding,” said LCA coach Lee Compson. “But our team is very resilient and our guys kept fighting and made enough plays to win. We are not satisfied, but we are happy to head into sectionals with a win.”

Arnas Zabarauskas had a monster game with 23 points and 24 rebounds for Howe, which is 1-17.

LCA will make its first-ever appearance in an IHSAA sectional on Feb. 27. The Cougars will play Bethany Christian at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday in a first-round game of the Class 1-A Hamilton Sectional.