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After a blistering 20-4 start, Morristown West let its guard down but used a late stop in the final 20 seconds to escape the Region 1-4A Quarterfinals with a 58-51 win on Saturday night.

Everything went the Trojans’ way in the opening minutes, and they got to the rim with ease as six different players scored in the run.

However, William Blount responded by hitting threes on four straight possessions to go on a 14-0 run and make it a two-point game at the end of the first, eventually leading to a down-to-the-wire finish.

Despite the hiccups, West coach Joe Dobyns was happy to survive and advance in his squad’s first elimination game.

“They found a way in the end to survive,” he said. “It wasn’t pretty. We had a great start. I feel like the start may have let us put our guard down a little bit, but I got to do a better job of making sure we don’t do that. But I felt like that happened to us a little bit early, and then they hit a shot, they hit a three, and once they hit one, they hit a bunch. We knew they could shoot the ball. They got multiple guys that can shoot it, and once they hit one, then it was on, and it was a race to the finish, and I was really proud of the guys for finding a way to get it done.”

Though the Govs came storming back, the Trojans never trailed in the win.

There were ties at 36 in the third and 49 in the fourth following William Blount runs, but West responded with buckets each time. Will DesGroseilliers broke the tie at 36, and Jamere Williams made it a 7-0 run. DesGroseilliers again broke the tie at 49 with a free throw with four minutes left, extending it to 52-49 with a lay. The Govs scored a basket moments later, but the a Trojans held them scoreless for the remaining 3:36 to hold on for the win.

Williams and DesGroseilliers led West with 13 apiece, while Anderson Noe and Julian Sexton each had nine. Every Trojan that got minutes found the bottom of the net as well. TJ Walthall and Jake Bunch put in four, Andy Fowler three, Joey Mihalko two and Ryan Caldwell put in a free throw.

“That’s pretty well spread out,” Dobyns said. “It’s almost four guys in double figures. So when we can share the ball that way and get multiple guys scoring, which we know we have got multiple guys that can score, that’s big for us. It looks like everybody who got in the game scored. So that was big for us to be able to do that and share the basketball, and everybody contributed just a little bit and did their part. So I was really proud of them for doing that and getting that done tonight. So it’s not easy to get a Region Tournament win. And we were able to do that. We wanted to make sure we took advantage of it, and to be able to get the win here at home was big for our seniors and for our team.”

Though Dobyns was happy to get the win, his squad faces a much taller task on Tuesday, facing No. 3 Maryville for a spot in the championship.

“Absolutely there are things we can improve on,” he said. “We got to defend a little bit better and take care of the ball. We had a few turnovers there, and they don’t really pressure a whole lot, but we had some uncharacteristic turnovers that we got to take care of against Maryville. We know that’s gonna be a great challenge for us Tuesday night, but we’re looking forward to it and ready to go play.

“I mean, this time of year, that’s the way it is. You want to be excited for the win, because you want to, want the boys to enjoy winning. We never want to take a win for granted. But you do have one coming, one looming, that could be the end of your season. And that’s the way, that’s the nature of the beast this time of year, is that you win, you survive and advance, but then you’ve got to turn around, do it all over again. So we told the, to enjoy the game this weekend, enjoy the game tonight. We’ll watch film on Maryville and come back and get ready to go.”