The Cumberland Valley Christian Blazers led pretty much the whole game but had to hang on at the end to defeat Calvary Christian 52-47 Tuesday evening in a Mason Dixon Christian Conference boys basketball game.

“This is an important week for us in the MDCC,” said Blazers coach Austin Sanders, whose team is 4-6 in the league and 8-9 overall. “We are in a stretch of games where it is important for us to play well and be playing our best basketball with playoffs just around the corner.”

The Blazers are clinging to fourth place and the chance to host a first-round MDCC game, but they have tough games Friday at Grace and Tuesday at  home against Shalom.

On Tuesday, the Blazers led for all but a few brief moments in the first quarter, and they were ahead by as many as eight points in the final period. Calvary, however, sliced into the margin and trailed only 49-47 with less than two minutes to play. Aaron Minnier hit two foul shots and Nollin Egolf sank one to provide the final points of the night and put the Blazers in the win column.

Egolf scored 24 points, grabbed seven rebounds and made three steals to lead the Blazers. Minnier added nine points, five rebounds and three steals. Reece Hunsberger scored nine points, Thomas Garvin netted seven, Ryan Crawford scored three, and Josh Rudy came up with five steals.

“We knew the Calvary game was going to be a battle,” Sanders said. “Calvary is scrappy and really good at crashing the boards. We did just enough to win that game, and I’m proud of our guys for that, but I would like to see us have a focus on ironing out our mistakes in our upcoming practices.”

On Monday, the Blazers fell 68-59 at undefeated Heritage Academy. The Blazers trailed only 48-45 entering the final period, but Heritage put together a 20-point final quarter.

Egolf and Minnier finished with double-doubles for the Blazers. Egolf led in scoring with 27 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and added six assists. Minnier led the team with 13 rebounds and scored 10 points.

Hunsberger scored 12 points, Garvin added seven, Rudy grabbed nine rebounds and scored two points, and Crawford collected six rebounds.

“I thought we played well for most of the game against an undefeated Heritage team,” Sanders said. “We just made too many mistakes in crunch time.”