The Callaway basketball teams are right where they want to be – in the thick of the race to be Callaway Invitational tournament champions.

The boys’ and girls’ squads defeated Harris County Friday night, although neither were blowout wins.

Both teams will face cross-town rival Troup High today, as the Tigers won their first round games against Pacelli Thursday night. The girls tip off at 5 p.m. and the boys’ game begins at 6:30 p.m.

Cavalier fans were on the edge of their seats for the majority of the night. The girls squeaked out a 43-41 win while the boys held off a late Harris County rally to win 70-65.

The Lady Cavaliers were in a defensive battle for most of the night, and held a 29-25 lead after three quarters. A seven-point Callaway lead quickly thinned to a two point lead with under a minute left.

With less than 10 seconds remaining, Harris County’s Aysha Jenkins missed a lay up, giving the Lady Cavaliers a berth in the championship game.

Senior Erin Anderson led Callaway with 18 points and Tersheor Tigner had 12 in a game where head coach Albert Gilliam saw another “third-quarter swoon” by the Lady Cavaliers. Callaway was outscored 9-6 in the third quarter.

“It’s almost like a car with a motor running,” Gilliam said. “You shut it off cold and let it sit there and try to turn it on to go the same speed. A body can't respond to that.”

When the Lady Cavaliers needed a play, however, they got one – especially in the free-throw shooting of Anderson. Anderson was three-of-four from the line in the fourth quarter.

“It’s all a learning experience,” Gilliam said. “We’re learning to play with adversity, which will only help us down the road.”

For the boys, a 14-3 start and a 24-point third quarter lead wasn’t enough to keep Harris County from fighting back, although the Cavaliers survived to move on to the championship round against Troup.

The Tigers rallied to come within six points late in the fourth quarter, mainly due to 31 Cavalier turnovers. While Callaway had just 11 in the first half, 20 giveaways after the break gave the Tigers hope.

“We got too jittery about scoring,” Cavaliers assistant coach Ken Mapp said. “Everybody wanted to score. We should have just played four corners to burn some clock.”

Cavaliers head coach Terry Hayes was disappointed with the turnovers, but tipped his hat to the Tigers, who outscored Callaway 46-34 in the second half.

“We survived, but you have to give Harris County credit,” Hayes said. “They fought back and showed what they could do, although we kept giving them turnovers.”

Quantavius Leslie led the Cavaliers with 20 points, followed by LaMichael Fanning with eight and Terrance Jackson with seven.

For both Cavalier squads, the opportunity to come away as tournament champions is reason to be excited, especially against a familiar foe in Troup.

On Monday, the two teams will square off again at Troup High in a regular-season matchup.

“We want to clear this hurdle, but then we’ll see them again for the second time in three days,” Gilliam said. “They’re a tough team and real formidable.”

The championship game will be a hug indicator on how the rival schools match up.

“It will be a big test,” Hayes said. “(Troup) is a great defensive team. We’ll have to play a lot better to win than we did tonight.”

Callaway Invitational

GIRLS

Thursday

Troup 62, Pacelli 46

Friday

Callaway 43, Harris County 41

Today

Championship game

Callaway vs. Troup, 5 p.m.

Consolation game

Harris vs. Pacelli, 2 p.m.

BOYS

Thursday

Troup 80, Pacelli 42

Friday

Callaway 70, Harris County 65

Today

Championship game

Callaway vs. Troup, 6:30 p.m.

Consolation game

Harris vs. Pacelli, 3:30 p.m.