Mortimer Jordan hung on to beat Cullman 63-59 on Monday night, but not before nearly giving coach Lynn Elkins a heart attack.

After going on a big run in the third quarter to lead by as many as 11 points, the Blue Devils went a bit wobbly at the free throw line, and fouled out three starters.

But the foul-line issues sorted themselves out, as Connor Moon hit three out of four in the last two minutes to preserve the victory.

“When you run an uptempo offense like we do, you’re going to go in streaks,” Elkins said. “I was a little disappointed in our defense — we didn’t back and get set quickly enough. We’re better when we’re running, so when our guys decide their going to walk it down, we get out of our game.”

The Devils were 20-for-37 at the line, for a paltry 54 percent. “If we had hit half of those we missed, we would have won easily,” Elkins said. “It’s hard to get kids to concentrate on free throws anymore.”

Point guard Mark Louis led Jordan most of the way, with 20 points, nine assists and six steals. But it was Moon and Seth Barnett who picked up the pace in the second half. Barnett scored all of his 10 points in the third period, and Moon had all but three of his 10 in the fourth.

Ben Hardiman and Orion Recke each scored eight points for Jordan (6-1) before fouling out midway through the final quarter.

Lawson Schaeffer scored 16 points and Lane Donaldson had 11 for the Bearcats (5-4).