Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mathews sophomore Dane Brubaker (25)goes for a layup while being defended by Pymatuning Valley’s Chase Guysinger during a game Friday in Vienna.

VIENNA — Last time Pymatuning Valley and Mathews met, a late heave put the Lakers over the top.

Despite a fourth-quarter comeback that brought Pymatuning Valley within a bucket, the Mustangs held on to top the Lakers 59-57 on Friday night in Vienna.

“We do a lot of things better here (at home), so that was a big part of it. And the energy and effort from the kids tonight was relentless from tip to buzzer. They wanted that one, and they went out and got it,” Mathews coach Mike Weymer said. “The zone bothered us again, but we worked against it. I thought we were good. It’s hard to simulate what PV does out there. Big night for our kids, big night for this program. I’m proud of them. We always want our kids to create memories that they can take with them, and I thought we did that tonight.”

With two seconds left, the Mustangs attempted to throw the ball down the court and run the clock out, but in trying to throw the ball over a Laker defender, they overshot it, bouncing off the ceiling. But the ceiling giveth and it taketh away, however, as Pymatuning Valley had its last shot bounce off the ceiling as time expired.

While not the best finish down the stretch for Mathews, it’s always easier to learn from mistakes after a win.

“That’s about as bad of a late-game as you’re gonna see,” Weymer said. “Coaching mistakes, player mistakes, missed free throws, lack of communication. I thought we did a really good job with communication most of the night, and then once the game got down to the very end, I didn’t think we’re very good. We’ll get in there, we’ll watch the film, we’ll learn from it, and we’ll get better.”

Anthony Marinkovich led the way for the Mustangs, scoring 15 points. Jake Petak added 12.

Pymatuning Valley was paced by sophomore Justin Britton who scored a game-high 23 points. Freshman Noah Dubic tacked on 12 and senior Chase Guysinger scored 10.

This season has been an uphill battle for the Lakers, who have had to rely on young talent in large roles. While they’re a talented group, there’s still been the expected growing pains.

“I know where we were at the beginning of the season. We got ourselves down quite a bit, but we’ve been down 20-30 points a bunch of times and fought our way back in games like this,” Lakers coach Ryan Shontz said. “I just want to see us eliminate some of the mistakes so we can get rid of that stretch in the third quarter when we went 7-of-21. It’s just too big of a hole, but at the end of the day, I believe in my boys. If we’re within striking distance, I feel like we’re gonna win.”

The Lakers host Champion on Tuesday.

Mathews moves to 9-8 in what has been a challenging year for the Mustangs. They’ve been on the wrong end of some lopsided games, but have found a way to respond each time they’re pushed.

“I’m very proud of this group, because it hasn’t been easy this year,” Weymer said. “These kids have had to fight and scrap and claw and have a positive attitude every single day to try to get better. I’m very proud of the way they’ve hung in there and fought back when things weren’t going their way.”

Mathews hosts Liberty on Friday. They close the regular season with three home games against Liberty, Brookfield and Struthers.