Each time Grace Academy started to pull away, Arts & Sciences came storming back.

That pattern continued throughout the boys’ basketball game Tuesday night at Grace until the Golden Eagles finally closed out a 67-64 victory after a CSAS 3-point attempt fell short with less than four seconds to play.

“We had a couple good chances to really put some separation between us and them, but we didn’t make it happen,” Grace coach Jon Mattheiss said. “We can’t keep putting ourselves in situations where other teams have the opportunity to come back like that. They’re so quick and athletic, and they were just going crazy on defense. We handled it just well enough to win, but not as well as we wanted to.”

The Patriots, who have eliminated Grace in the semifinals of the last two Region 3-A tournaments, had to play from behind early. The Golden Eagles’ Brandon Herman beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 3, and Fuquan Harper opened the second period with a score that extended Grace’s lead to 12.

Aaron Cousin got CSAS back in it with three baskets in less than a minute during a 10-0 second-quarter run that featured three steals.

“There were some things we wanted to try out tonight,” Patriots coach Mark Dragoo said. “We were just trying to keep pressure on the ball. I thought they might cough it up some, and they did.”

The Golden Eagles (17-5) took a 34-27 lead into halftime and extended it to 13 points on a 3 from Taylor Wilson midway through the third quarter. Terrell Townsend responded with a trey for the Patriots, who cut their deficit to five before falling behind by 10 with 3:47 left to play.

CSAS (16-6) helped itself by making 11 of 12 free throws in the final period, and a steal and basket from Townsend got the Patriots within 65-64 with 32 seconds remaining. After Harper missed two free throws eight seconds later, Townsend grabbed the rebound, but when the Patriots’ shot didn’t connect, Harper was fouled again on the rebound with 14.8 seconds on the clock.

This time both shots were good, securing the win for Grace, which will play Thursday at CSAS in a makeup game.

“We just held on,” Mattheiss said. “What I’m happy about is that in spite of all the mistakes we made, we hung on and won the game.”

Patrick Shaughnessy’s 20 points led the Golden Eagles, while Herman scored 18 and Harper and Wilson added 10 apiece. Cousin led CSAS with 24 and Townsend had 18.