Holly Pond's Tanner Duke (1) is chased down the court by West Point's Kolton Easterwood during Tuesday's JV boys semifinal.

HANCEVILLE — Survive. Advance.

And breathe.

Holly Pond’s junior varsity boys couldn’t do any of the three until the final buzzer Tuesday at Wallace State’s Tom Drake Coliseum, watching a last-second West Point shot rattle in and out to seal a 43-40 semifinal victory.

The tight win launched the second-seeded Broncos to Championship Saturday of the 2016 Cullman County Basketball Tournament. They’ll battle No. 1 Fairview for the title at 5 p.m.

Holly Pond grabbed the lead early and never let it slip.

Not for lack of effort by the third-seeded Warriors.

Kolton Easterwood jumpstarted West Point’s final push with back-to-back 3-pointers to close the deficit to 40-38. A Jake Harris free throw stretched the Broncos’ lead back to three, only for Austin Dubberly to answer inside and cut the Warriors’ gap to a single point.

Harris put Holly Pond up 43-40 by converting a one-and-one but missed the front end on his next opportunity to give West Point one last chance.

Dante’ Callahan nearly capitalized, getting a clean look on a turnaround around the arc that bounced off the front of the rim, the backboard, the front of the rim again and out.

Only then could coach Mitch Jones, filling in for Bob Kusz, let out a giant sigh of relief.

“I told them, ‘Hey, it’s win or go home,’” Jones said. “They did a good job adjusting to some things we wanted to do, and we limited some things that hurt us in the first half. I’m very proud of them. Very, very proud of them.”

Harris showed off his range with a trio of treys and 16 points for Holly Pond. McKinley Garrett and Tanner Duke pitched in seven, Jordan Creel, five; Trevor Shoemaker, four; Tyler Cone, three; and Reid Hollis, one.

Though Jones isn’t Holly Pond’s usual JV boys coach, he spent plenty of time with the players over the summer while Kusz was pulling double duty with the cross country team.

Three days after his ninth-grade unit was eliminated by Hanceville in overtime, Jones was tickled for his “new” squad to come out on top.

“That’s a fun bunch to coach right there,” he said. “Special bunch. Good kids. Got great parents. They’re good Christian young men. They’re fun to be around.”

The outcome spoiled an impressive outing by Dubberly, who scored all seven of West Point’s points in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 21. He had his way in the paint for most of the production but flashed his versatility with a 3-pointer in the third quarter.

Kolton Easterwood notched the six points, Callahan secured five, Zach Shaw and Toby Cunningham added three apiece, and Noah Gammon had one.

Holly Pond was swept by Fairview in the regular season, but Jones said both games were “very competitive.”

He expects more of the same on Saturday.

“We’re looking forward to that third chance at ’em,” he said.