Weathering a furious second half rally fueled by a barrage of three pointers, the Whetstone Braves held on for a 64-62 win over Teays Valley at the Fairgrounds Coliseum on Tuesday night to earn a sectional final berth against Scioto on February 25.

Whetstone rode its own three point shooting to establish a 35-23 lead at the half. Teays Valley spent most of the first half in a zone defense and the Braves hit nine treys, including three each by sophomore guards Landon Hinkle and Brandon Wheat.

The Braves stretched the lead to 41-24 two minutes into the third quarter and appeared headed to an easy victory over the Vikings, who were making their debut in Division I tournament play.

The Braves spread the floor and forced the Vikings to play man defense. Whetstone seemed content to run clock and try to find ways to drive to the basket for lay-ins or fouls.

On the other end of the floor, Teays Valley began to heat up from outside and ran effective screens to create opportunities closer to the basket. This fueled a 15-4 run to end the quarter.

Freshman guard Brandon Amann hit the first of his four second half treys and sophomore guard Nathan Dresbach closed the quarter with a backdoor lay-in and a trey just before the buzzer that cut the Braves lead to 45-39.

The teams took turns making mini-runs in the fourth quarter, but it appeared that the Braves had the game in hand once again after Hinkle hit a pair of free throws to give them a 63-56 lead with a minute to go.

Dresbach hit a trey with 52 seconds left to cut the lead to 63-59 and after a pair of missed Whetstone free throws, senior center Zach Fellure made a traditional three-point play to cut the lead to 63-62 with 31.9 seconds to go. Using full court pressure, the Vikings force a turnover and called time.

A long trey missed and Whetstone’s Rick Richardson was fouled on the rebound by Fellure. He hit one free throw with 17.1 seconds to go and gave the Braves a 64-62 lead.

Teays Valley rushed the ball up court and called time again with 11.7 seconds. They ran a play in which they tried to get the ball to both Amann and Dresbach, but were forced to take a very long trey by another player that fell short.

The Irish and Braves square off for the sectional championship at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Coliseum.

The winner will play the winner of the Westerville South/Hilliard Davidson game in a district semi-final on March 4.