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The Huntland Middle School Hornets beat the Unity Lions 35-32 at home Monday for their 19^th win of the season.

The lead changed hands in every quarter as the Hornets took the lead for good early in the fourth quarter and held off the Lions late to finish off the narrow victory.

After falling behind early, the Hornets scored six straight points at the end of the opening period to jump ahead. Ellis Stewart scored six of Huntland’s 10 points in the first quarter.

They led 10-9 after one quarter.

The second quarter featured five lead changes with the Lions ultimately ending up ahead when the first half came to an end.

Huntland trailed 19-18 after one quarter.

A basket by Luke Yarbrough gave the Hornets a 24-23 lead with about a minute left in the third quarter, but the Lions hit a free throw to tie the game with 38.5 seconds remaining in the quarter.

The Lions added two more free throws with about 17 seconds on the clock in the third quarter to put Huntland behind by a score of 26-24 going into the final period.

The Hornets got off to a fast start in the fourth quarter with a basket by Stewart and a 3-pointer by Micah Tipps giving them a 29-26 lead in the first minute of the period.

The Lions countered with a 3-point play to tie the score, but the Hornets took the ball down the court and quickly retook the lead at 31-29 on a shot by Yarbrough with about 4:30 remaining.

Neither teams scored for the next three minutes of game time until Bryant Mooney hit a layup to bring Huntland’s lead up to four with about 90 seconds to go.

The Lions cut the deficit back down to a single point with about 40 seconds remaining and had the ball with a chance to take the lead. However, Julius Miller grabbed a defensive rebound, drew a foul and hit the ensuing free throws to bring the lead back up to three points with 21.2 seconds on the clock.

The Lions weren’t able to score on their last few possessions as the Hornets held on to win by three.

Stewart led the Hornets with 11 points for the game, followed by Tipps with eight points and Miller and Mooney with six points each.

Yarbrough scored four points.

With the win, the Hornets improved to 19-1 on the season.

They will next play in their area tournament at Lincoln Central Academy. A schedule for the tournament had not been confirmed at the time of writing.