The Abilene High boys basketball team had its mettle tested by a desperate North Richland Hills Richland squad Tuesday night at Eagle Gym and came through in the clutch with a gutsy 54-50 victory.

After watching a 34-26 third-quarter lead turn into a six-point deficit (44-38) by the six-minute mark of the fourth, the Eagles closed the game on a 16-6 run to improve to 20-8 on the year and stay perfect at 7-0 in District 3-6A play.

AHS tied the game at 45-all on Jalen McGee’s floater with 3:34 to play and saw a 3-pointer by Richland’s Ikechi Osondu knot the score at 50-all with 1:56 remaining. But Khristian Johnson’s corner 3 at the 1:27 mark put the Eagles back on top, and Joe Joe Escobedo blocked a 3-point attempt in the waning seconds to end the Rebels’ comeback bid.