Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Bristol sophomore Logan Briggs eyes the basket while being defended by Champion senior Keegan Clifford on Friday night in Bristolville.

BRISTOLVILLE — It wasn’t pretty, but wins don’t have to be.

The Bristol Panthers were pushed to the limit on Friday, but came out on top, downing Champion, 70-67, in an overtime thriller.

“I’ve been coaching a long time. I wasn’t thrilled with how they followed the game plan, but they kept on fighting. They grinded it out,” Panthers coach Jeff Thompson said. “They grinded it out, and that’s what we’re supposed to do here at Bristol. It might not look pretty all the time, but at the end of the day, you win and you move on.”

It was a back-and-forth slugfest for 32 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to decide the game. When Champion would go on a run, Bristol would respond and vice versa.

Late in the game, the Panthers (6-3) seemingly pulled away just enough. They led by three with just a handful of seconds on the clock and no timeouts on either bench. It was going to take a heave to extend the game.

The Golden Flashes tapped leading scorer Marky Nolan (22 points) with taking the final shot, and despite the frantic hands of Bristol’s defenders in his face, Nolan’s shot went in to force overtime.

Nolan, Damien Jewell-Wickman (19 points) and Braylen Braham (17 points) accounted for most of Champion’s points.

Bristol’s leading scorer, sophomore Logan Briggs, also scored 22 points. Another sophomore, Rylen Gillen, finished with 16. Seth Miller finished with 11 points, scoring four from the free-throw line in overtime to help seal the deal for the Panthers.

Without two seniors who were penciled in as impact players for Bristol this year, Parker Gall and Michael Sponsler, the younger talent has had to step up.

“I had 38 points between two sophomores tonight,” Thompson said. “I’ll take it.”

In overtime, the Flashes were in the same situation as they were at the end of the regulation — in the waning seconds, and in need of three points to force another extra period. This time though, Nolan’s shot fell wide and the Panthers got the win.

While not walking off the floor with a win, Champion (1-8) has a solid performance to build off of for the remainder of the season.

“It’s heartbreaking, but you can take a lot of the good things and definitely build off of this,” Flashes coach Mark Taylor said. “I’m really at a loss for words, because it’s a devastating, tough loss. It’s a really tough loss. And I told them, we always talk about winning the day, and that’s playing with discipline, effort, focus and toughness. They did all four of those. Those attributes are winning characteristics of good teams. We did those things. I think it came down to a handful of possessions, and we were on the other side of it tonight, but this was definitely something to build off.”

Champion has a quick turnaround, playing Maplewood today at 3:30 p.m.

The Panthers travel to Mathews on Tuesday. Thompson hopes this game teaches his kids a lot of things, maybe chiefly among them is to fight through adversity.

“When things aren’t going your way, you just gotta find a way and gut it out,” Thompson said. “That’s what we did tonight. We can build off that.”