Cheer battles, great plays and court-storming celebration always seem to accompany the words &8220;rival game.&8221;

Thursday&8217;s Class 6A, Area 10 battle between Pelham and Thompson had nothing short of those three, as the Thompson Warriors held off the Panthers in an overtime thriller, 76-75.

Trailing 75-74 after a four-point play by Pelham&8217;s Steven Clark, Thompson coach Jeff Nichols called timeout to design a game-winning play with less than 20 seconds to play in overtime.

Breaking the time out, Laderreous Kelley grabbed and put back his second rebound of the game on a missed 3-point basket by Siddeeq Cooper to give the Warriors a one-point lead with 10 seconds on the clock.

&8220;That&8217;s what we drew up during the time out. Instead of trying to work to get in the middle, we told Siddeeq to shoot it and put Laderreous on the wing and told him to get the backside rebound. It just happened to work out,&8221; Nichols said.

On the following possession, Cooper swiped the ball from the Panthers as the final seconds counted off the clock to secure the victory for the red and white.

&8220;Their pressure defense gets to you after a while. It got to us a couple of times, but if we could hit free throws we win,&8221; said Pelham coach Owen Butts, whose team was 1-of-3 from the line in over time.

Thompson trailed at the end of each first three quarters, down 31-28 at the half and 48-45 at the end of the third quarter. However, Cooper collected two of his 10 points in the game with a minute left in regulation to take a 63-61 lead.

Rodney Billings kept the Panthers&8217; hopes alive in the final minute, draining a pair of 3-point baskets in the final 45 seconds, including the game-tying basket at the buzzer to force an extra four minutes. He finished with 24 points. Clark went on to score all of Pelham&8217;s eight points in the period and finished with a game-high 31.

Gary Cunningham posted 30 points and nine rebounds to lead the Warriors.

The victory snapped a four-game skid by the Warriors as they improved to 13-4 on the season and captured their second area win. They met Hueytown last night for their third area match-up of the season. Pelham fell to 5-13 overall.

In other recent action:

-Kingwood Christian 68, Cornerstone Christian 47: Cody Owens scored 21 to lead Kingwood (8-4). Nick Holcombe added 19 points, followed by Brooks Webb with 11. Blake Etress led Cornerstone (3-9) with 19.

-Briarwood 66, Shades Mountain Christian 32: Carter Tanner went 4-5 from 3-point range as he led the Lions (13-6) with 14 points Saturday. He also dished out five assists while Wesley Lynch and Austin Thames scored 12 points each.

-Parker 57, Briarwood 45: Lynch led the Lions with 16 points followed by 13 from Thames as Briarwood dropped their first area game. Morgan Bandy collected a team-high eight rebounds.

-Shelby County 61, Chelsea 40: The Wildcats (9-9) improved to 2-1 the area, led by Josh Dikis with 16 points and Richard Sutton, who posted a double-double 14 points and 14 boards. Tyrone Buie added 10 points. Rod Macon paced Chelsea with 20 points.

-Calera 88, Altamont 83: Calera (10-4) was led by Kaderius Lacey with 21 points, Demarcus Dowdell and Ktyle Knichols had 15.

-Kingwood 61, Springwood 31: Cody Owens scored 15 points, four boards and eight steals for the 7-4 Lions. But Nick Holcombe led all scorers with 18.

-Coosa Valley Acdemy 63, East Memorial 61: The Rebels (11-3) were paced by Cody Browning with 20 points. Chase Lacy scored 15 points for the Rebels while Kevin Corbitt chipped in 14 and grabbed 11 boards.

-Vincent 67, Fayetteville 51: The Yellow Jackets improved to 3-0 in area play and 10-8 overall. Justin Peterson led Vincent with 17 points, Octavious Looney followed with 15 points, and Josh Kelley scored 14. Looney also had 12 rebounds.

-Gordo 70, Montevallo 43: The Dawgs were led Duane Fulgham with

and Brando Lilly with 10 points each.

-Shelby County 82, Montevallo 41: Josh Dikis led the Wildcats with 13 points while Richardson Sutton scored 11 and Josh Jones scored 10.

Stef Gilbert, Kelvin Reed and Gilbert Sean all scored six points each for (0-8) Montevallo.

-Vincent 58, Montevallo 29: Last Tuesday, the Yellow Jackets were led by J.V. McKinney with 11 points and Eric Arrowood with 10 rebounds. The Bulldogs were led by Fulgham with 14 points. Cottingham had five rebounds.

-Oak Mountain 48, Hueytown 38: The Eagles were led in this encounter by Donnie Mack with 17 points and Michael Hester with 11.

-Coosa Valley 47, Shelby Academy 35: Kevin Corbitt led the 10-3 Rebels nine points, 12 rebounds and 10 huge blocks. Cody Browning had 11 points and Chad Lacy had 12.

-Shelby County 73, Pelham

68: Darion Sutton led the Wildcats with 24 points and nine rebounds while Richard Sutton scored 20, Josh Jones scored 15 and Tyrone Buie had six assists. Steven Clark had 27 points for Pelham.

-Chilton County 65, Chelsea 54: Rod Macon has 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists in this losing effort for the Hornets.

David Strider contributed 12 points and Davin Palmer added 11 for Chelsea