JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley's one-point win over Section 3 rival North Hills Tuesday night was the product of the Raiders' ability to make free throws.

Of course, the Indians' failure to do so didn't hurt SV's chances.

The Raiders drained 12-of-16 shots from the line in the fourth quarter, while North Hills missed all six of its opportunities in the same span as SV pulled out a key 69-68 win.

A loss would have dropped the Raiders (5-4, 1-1) to 0-2 in section play.

“It's no secret, a team's goal is to win their section games at home and split on the road,” said Raiders coach Victor Giannotta. “We'll take it.”

Free throws helped push SV's lead to 67-63 late in the fourth period before North Hills' Danny White hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left, making it a one-point affair.

The Indians (4-6, 0-3) immediately fouled Austin Bream following SV's inbound pass.

The senior forward stepped to the line and hit both shots for a 69-66 edge.

Moments later, North Hills' Alex Wright missed both of his free throws, the second one intentionally. The senior guard rebounded the second miss and put in a 2-point basket, but the Indians were out of timeouts and the clock expired.

Bream scored all nine of his points from the line, including a 7-of-8 effort in the fourth period.

Before his final trip to the charity stripe, he made both free throws to give the Raiders fourth-quarter leads of 64-58 (at 1:02) and 66-61 (:45).

“Free throws were paramount tonight,” said Giannotta. “Austin looked confident at the line.”

On the other side of the court, North Hills' late trips to the line ended in frustration.

With SV leading 59-58, Steve Hearty missed both free throws after being fouled with 2:34 left in the game.

SV's Alex Snyder battled for the rebound after the second miss and his effort led to Easton Bazzoli's 3-pointer that gave the Raiders a four-point lead with under two minutes to go.

For the game, the Indians were just 10-of-24 from the line.

“Free throws killed us tonight,” said North Hills coach Buzz Gabos. “We haven't been in many close games and it showed tonight. Hopefully, we can learn from this.”

But in the third period, it was North Hills riding the wave of momentum. The Indians entered the second half down 36-27, but thanks in part to Wright's nine points in the quarter, the game was knotted at 50 with one period left.

“In the third quarter, we allowed them to control the tempo,” said Giannotta. “We started forcing things and were called for a couple of charges.”

Both teams featured balanced scoring. SV was led by Alex Maxfield's 18 points, but Bazzoli added 17 and Chad Albert 10.

Hearty paced the Indians with 20 points, Wright had 17 and Joel Pepmeyer 14.

“Offensively in the second half, we were fine,” said Gabos. “But defensively, we can't stop anybody. We gave up a lot of easy baskets.”

NORTH HILLS 68Bryce Henny 1 0-1 2, Danny White 2 0-0 6, Alex Wright 6 4-7 17, Sam Tovissi 4 0-0 9, Joel Pepmeyer 6 2-6 14, Steve Hearty 8 4-10 20.

Totals: 27 10-24 68.

SENECA VALLEY 69Matt Smith 3 2-3 8, Easton Bazzoli 7 0-0 17, Chad Albert 5 0-1 10, Alex Maxfield 6 5-5 18, Ryan McCauley 1 1-3 3, Austin Bream 0 9-10 9, Alex Snyder 2 0-0 4, Matt Darby 0 0-0 0, T.J. Holl 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24 17-22 69.

North Hills 13 14 23 18—68Seneca Valley 14 22 14 19—693-point goals: North Hills 4 (White 2, Wright, Tovissi); Seneca Valley 4 (Bazzoli 3, Maxfield).

Friday: Seneca Valley at Shaler