SENATOBIA – Sophomores Charles Eaton and DeMarcus McVay each had big nights, with Eaton netting a season-high 26 points and McVay adding 22 points and 18 rebounds, as Northwest held off a second half rally from Mid-South in a hard-fought 87-84 win Tuesday night. 

Northwest improved to 2-0 on the young season while Mid-South dropped to 0-3.

In a whistle-happy game that drew a combined 53 fouls and 84 total free throws, clutch shots from Eaton at the charity stripe in the game's final seconds helped hold off the Greyhounds.

Northwest closed the first half on an 8-0 run to take a 14-point lead at the break, 45-31, as the Rangers led for all but 36 seconds in the opening half and outshot Mid-South 41 to 28 percent.

But Mid-South would slowly chip away at the lead thanks to 51 percent shooting in the second half, and finally pulled in front 69-68 with 6:58 remaining on Larry Ziegler's fastbreak layup.

The teams exchanged four leads over the ensuing two minutes before McVay's huge tip-in and free throw put the Rangers back on top 82-78 with 3:02 to play.

Trevail Lee, the game's high scorer with 28 points, did all he could to keep Mid-South in range by scoring the final six points for his team. Lee hit a pair of free throws with 3 seconds left to make it an 85-84 game, surprisingly not missing the second shot on purpose for the potential game-winning basket. 

An immediate foul and a pair of Eaton free throws with 2 seconds remaining made the final 87-84, with Northwest stealing the final inbounds pass to end the game.

The team's closed the night with identical field goal percentages, each hitting 39.7 percent.

Northwest won the game from the charity stripe, hitting 33 of 49 attempts while Mid-South was 24 of 35.

Northwest will close out a three-game homestand on Thursday against Hinds at 7 p.m.

Live video at www.ihigh.com/nwccrangers and live stats at www.sidearmstats.com/northwestms/mbball.