The Red Level Tigers’ varsity boys basketball team picked up a big 48-47 victory over the Brantley Bulldogs Thursday night in Brantley.

In the opening period, the Tigers and Bulldogs battled to a 10-10 tie. Dameyune Scott had 5 points in the first period for the Tigers and Devon Dexter had 3 points.

Ontaryo Nearor had 2 points in the opening period for Red Level.

Both teams continued to battle in the second period, but it was Brantley who took a 22-19 lead into halftime. Jeffery Perdue was the leading scorer in the second period for Red Level with 7 points. Nearor added 2 more points for the Tigers.

Dexter got rolling in the third period with a pair of 3-pointers and JaVarius Grooms buried a 3-pointer as well, but Red Level trailed Brantley 35-28 heading into the final period of play.

Brantley opened up the final period with a surge, quickly pushing the lead up to 12 points, but Red Level wasn’t about to throw in the towel.

The Tigers worked the deficit back to around 6 points late in the fourth period, and then got it down to 4 points with under a minute remaining.

Down by 4 points with 17 seconds left on the clock, Dexter sank a 3-pointer that left Red Level trailing 47-46.

Red Level immediately fouled Brantley and sent the Bulldogs to the free-throw line for two shots. Both shoots drew nothing but iron. Dexter secured the board and went coast-to-coast before drawing a foul with nine ticks left on the clock. Where the Bulldogs couldn’t get it done at the line, Dexter buried both of his attempts to put Red Level on top 48-47.

Brantley inbounded the ball and drove to the other end of the court, but couldn’t get off a shot on the Tigers’ stiff defense.

Dexter led Tigers in scoring with 21 points. Perdue added 9 points and Scott tacked on 8 points.

“The shots didn’t fall for us the majority of the game,” Tigers’ coach Allen Catrett said. “The last few minutes of the ball game we increased the pressure and started making shots. Fortunately, we were able to come out on top at the end.”

With the win Red Level improves to 13-14 overall, and 7-0 against teams from Class 1A, Area 2.

Red Level finished the season tied for second place in Class 1A, Region 3, but lost the coin toss and will be the third-seed in the area tournament. Red Level will play J.F. Shields at 5 p.m., Feb. 11 in Georgiana for the first round of the Area 3 tournament.