Straughn wasn’t about to give up its lead over Georgiana this afternoon.

With time ticking down in the waining minutes of the fourth period, Straughn held on and beat the Panthers 52-45 to win its annual Christmas tournament championship.

What helped the Tigers (3-0) momentum-wise was lower-back stinger to Hobie Hughes.

Hughes went down hard on the court with 6:41 left in the third and with less than 5 minutes left in the fourth.

In both instances, Hughes was obviously writhing in pain, but that didn’t matter as he stood back up and entered the game after his first fall.

He started the fourth period and that sparked some life back into the Tigers’ bench.

With 56.7 seconds left, GHS made it a two-point game after making one-of-two free throws.

Brice Scott, who led the Tigers with 18 points and was also named the tournament MVP, drained a 1-and-1 to ice the game.

JD Driver chipped in 12 points for SHS.

In other action, Red Level beat Florala 63-32, and Pleasant Home edged New Brocton 42-39 in OT.

Complete coverage of today’s games will be in Tuesday’s edition of The Star-News.