The Gregory School held off Immaculate Heart 46-41 Tuesday night at home to improve to 10-7 in power-ranking games and the win clinched the second spot in the 1A South Region with a 2-1 record behind Desert Christian (15-3, 3-0).

The Hawks started the night ranked No. 19 in the in 1A Conference, which falls outside of the 16-team play-in tournament scheduled for Feb. 8, but the top two teams in the 1A South will advance regardless of rank. No. 24 Immaculate Heart (7-6, 1-2) needed to the win to secure a playoff spot and the Knights almost pulled it off.

Immaculate Heart took an 8-5 lead after the first quarter thanks to a three-pointer from Eddie Ramirez but a breakaway dunk by Vince Edwards gave the Hawks an 11-10 lead with 4:28 left in the first half and that play seemed to spark the Hawk offense even though he was assessed a technical for hanging on the rim. Alejandro Nuñez made two free throws to retake the lead at 12-11.

The Gregory School closed out the half from there on a 13-2 run to go up 24-14. The Knights were able to cut the lead down to eight points on a 3 from Jonathan Ranke with 22.7 left in the third but Edwards returned the favor at the other end and the Hawks led 36-25.

The Knights made a move on two buckets from David Ferrel and a 3 from Andrew Stanbrook to cut the margin down to 42-36 with 1:46 left but Edwards came up with a steal to prevent further damage and he dunked again on the play to end that threat but the Knights weren’t finished.

Ramirez hit another 3 with 27.3 seconds left to make it 46-41 but the team was unable to capitalize on a Hawk turnover and the clock ran out on the comeback. Edwards led all scorers with 29 points and David El added 7 for the Hawks. Ferrel and Ramirez scored 12 points each to lead the Knights and Nuñez added 7.

Immaculate Heart will travel to St. Augustine (4-10) Wednesday night to close out the regular season and the Knights and Hawks are slated to take part in the 1A South/1A Tucson Region Tournament on Saturday in St. David.

Once again, the 16-team Play-In Tournament is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 8 and the 8-team state playoff bracket starts on Friday, Feb. 18.

David Ferrel goes up for a bucket. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)