Calvary Christian built a 16-point lead a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter, and it appeared the Eagles would cruise to a win over District 12-3A rival Westminster Academy.

But the Lions didn’t slink away and give up. They fought back.

Westminster cut into the big lead, hitting shots and capitalizing on mistakes. The Lions got within five points of the Eagles before Calvary pushed them back, knocking down key free throws to keep the game out of reach. The Eagles came out ahead 79-68 in front of a packed gym in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday night.

“You can never count out three-time state champs,” Calvary coach Cilk McSweeney said. “We were prepared for them to come over here and give us a challenge and stuff like that. But we feel we’re good and so we can beat anybody.”

The two teams were neck-and-neck through the first quarter. But Eagles sophomore standout Gregg Glenn gave Calvary its first big lead of the night.

The Fab Five selection and five-star prospect scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to push the Eagles ahead by as many as 11 points in the second quarter. Glenn finished the game with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

“When you play at the level he’s played at in the last year or so, we expect that,” McSwenney said. “So we’ve been asking him to be consistent and be a leader, lead us, and he stepped up.”

Two three pointers by Westminster’s Troy Boynton cut Calvary’s lead back down to five, showing that the Lions wouldn’t just go away.

The Eagles extended their lead back to 14 by the end of the fourth quarter, but Westminster fought furiously to come back. Sophomore forward and Fab Five pick Ben Middlebrooks led the Lions with 21 points, while Stephen Swanson was second with 14.

“Let’s finish the game out and let’s just fight,” Glenn said he was thinking.

The Eagles hit five of six late free throws and scored two late baskets to extend the final margin of victory back to 11. In addition to Glenn, four other Calvary players reached double-digits in points: junior Noah Tovar had 16 points, junior Dylan Canoville had 13 points, senior Sterling Young had 11 points and freshman Carl Cheranfant had 10.

“I told them, up to this point, this game was the biggest game of our season because this was to take the first seed for our district tournament … to avoid playing a tougher match up with Sagemont,” McSweeney said. “So we needed this game. So I told them and they stepped up to the challenge.”