MERRY HILL – Lawrence Academy left it all on the floor here Tuesday night – literally.

The Warriors battled Columbia High School in a close game throughout and came away with a 63-55 non-conference win.

But it was a battle to the end with Warrior junior Chase Stevens ending up literally laying on the floor after taking a charge that gave the Warriors back possession with approximately one minute to play.

“That’s what I’ve been preaching all year long and I’m pleased that Chase took the charge,” third-year Warriors basketball boss Jon Powell said. “Everyone in the gym knew he was gonna run over Chase, but he stood there and took it and, hopefully, that will be a catalyst to us doing a lot more of it.”

The fifth win in a row for the Warriors came down to the final minutes as Columbia twice cut the lead to one possession before the Warriors answered on the other end.

Willie Bass earned a double-double for Lawrence with 13 points and 16 boards during the contest. Trace Larabee was close to pulling off the same feat as he had 13 points and added seven assists.

Cade Larabee led the Warrior scoring effort with 18 points.

The teams traded buckets in the first quarter with Lawrence eventually coming away with a 14-11 lead. A full-court press by the Warriors during parts of the second quarter forced Columbia turnovers and allowed Lawrence to build their lead to 34-25 by the intermission.

The Wildcats wouldn’t go away, however, with A. Spencer pouring in 26 points and two more Columbia players had 16 each.

“We haven’t played anyone who had a big inside presence that wanted to go to him like they did – and they did a good job of it,” Powell said. “We don’t have anyone who can go against Willie like that in practice, so we needed to see it.

“Now that we’ve seen it, I think they know what I want from them,” he added. “We’ll work on it in practice tomorrow because they know now what it looks like.”

In addition to those in double figures, the Warriors got seven from Darren Armstrong, six from Travis Whitehead and six from Stevens.

The Warriors improved to 8-2 with the victory and will be off until Monday when the participate in the Mission Sports Holiday Invitational. They’ll meet St. David’s School Monday before squaring off with Southeast Raleigh High School Tuesday.