In football, a team holding onto a slim lead late in the game will often try and run out the clock.

Riverside Military Academy accomplished the basketball equivalent by simply holding onto the ball Tuesday night at Curtis Hall to secure a 51-44 win over Region 8-A opponent Towns County in Gainesville.

For a team able to suit up just seven players, it was a good way to finish the 2011 year before students go on Christmas furlough.

“We’re 2-1 in the region and we’re right where we want to be,” Riverside coach Ron Smith said. “We’ll be better once we have all of our players back eligible in the new year.”

So the early season plan was just to hold on, something the Eagles did well.

In the last four minutes of the game, Riverside (2-3, 2-1 Region 8-A) controlled the ball for all but a few seconds, effectively burning out the clock after taking a four point lead with under five minutes to play. The home team held the Indians (2-8, 1-2), which held a 42-39 lead after three, to just two points in the final quarter.

“It builds a little confidence that we can do that through three quarters,” said Towns County coach Ken Hamilton. “We just have to be able to do that through four.”

The Riverside players didn’t expect to be involved in such a close game before tip-off.

“We thought coming into this game that we would have it under control,” said Eagles guard Hunter Dumas. “But that wasn’t the way it turned out.”

The sophomore, who finished with a team-high 15 points, spent more than a minute late in the fourth holding on to the ball just inside the half court line, watching the seconds roll off.

“I was far away (from the defenders) so I just held the ball to waste time,” Dumas said. “I figured they’d come get me after 15 seconds.”

It was a changeup for a team that spent most of the game throwing themselves at the rim. The Eagles finished 11 of 20 at the free throw line and scored almost all of their points in the paint, finishing with just one 3-pointer.

Riverside forward Orlando Lynch led the way on the boards, grabbing nine rebounds to go with 14 points.

Ryan Tallert paced the Indians with 15 points and Dallas Manus added 11. Tallert’s layup to cut the Riverside lead to 46-44 midway through the fourth accounted for Towns County’s last points of the game.

The Indians hit five 3-point shots in the game, four in the first half, and finished 5 of 12 from the free throw line. The team from Hiawassee has one more game before the winter break, a non-region game Friday at archrival Union County.

After sticking with Riverside through nearly an entire game, Hamilton is optimistic about his young team.

“I figured that they might have been a little more athletic,” Hamilton said of the Eagles. “But we play up to our competition.”

Midway through the first Riverside had a chance to pull away after going ahead 13-7 on a rebound and putback by Lynch, but Manus responded with a 3-pointer to halt an 8-0 Eagles run.

Towns County even took a brief, 26-22 lead just before half, but Lynch hit a free throw to start a five-point run to end the half that featured a pair of steals by Eagles guard Adrian Humphrey, who led the team with six steals to go along with 10 points. Humphrey converted the first steal into a fast break layup and then fed Lynch for another layup and a 27-26 lead at the break.

“Toward the second half we pulled together as a team,” Dumas said.

But the Eagles still couldn’t pull away as Towns County matched basket for basket. Down 37-35, Tallert sank a three to start a 7-2 run to end the quarter with a 42-39 Indians lead.

The lead didn’t last long. Lynch opened the fourth with a layup, and then Eagles bench player Justin Sweeting swung the momentum firmly to Riverside.

Sweeting blocked Towns County forward Brandon Henderson under the basket, scored the go-ahead layup on the other end, grabbed a trio of rebounds and fed Dumas for a layup that turned into a traditional three-point play, and a 46-42 lead, after a foul.

The go-ahead basket to give Riverside a 43-42 lead accounted for Sweeting’s only two points of the game.

Dumas made both ends of a 1-and-1 and JaRontae McGordon sank a free throw to account for the final score after Towns started fouling to stop the clock late.