PANTEGO — Despite being outscored in each quarter after the first, Terra Ceia hung on to beat Wayne Christian, 80-79, in the first round of the NCISAA state playoffs on Tuesday. The Knights, led by Tyler Hendrix’s double-double (22 points, 12 rebounds), got just enough to propel it into a second-round matchup with the only team that’s beaten them — Wayne Country Day.

The visiting Eagles got three baskets in a row to tie the game at 77 apiece with 1:39 to play. The Knights, perhaps feeling the pressure, struggled with their opportunities at the free-throw line down the stretch.

They got just enough to escape with the win, though. Messiah Barnes’ foul shot broke the tie with 1:17 left, and Quentin Van Essendelft got a freebie a minute later to extend Terra Ceia’s lead to 80-77.

“I just knew I had to knock one down to seal the game,” Van Essendelft said. “I was pretty nervous about it. I’m glad it went in.”

Barnes added, “I was thinking make the free throw to win the game.”

Wayne Christian got the ball with enough time to get the ball down the court and potentially tie the game. The Knights’ objective was to keep the Eagles from getting an open look from behind the arc. An errant pass left them with no other choice than to put up a last-second mid-range shot from the baseline, which fell, but the two points weren’t enough to tie things up.

“At times, we lost our composure. We need patience and composure,” coach Roger Klaassen said. “This was good for us. We needed this. It was a real test. It’s been a while since we’ve had that, and we still gutted it out. That’s big, but we need better foul shooting and that composure and patience.”

The final stretch was as close as the game was since its onset. Wayne Christian had an early 4-3 lead before Terra Ceia ripped off a 9-0 spurt. Shaiquan Moore got things started by converting an and-1. Terra Ceia got in its groove by forcing steals and turning them into easy buckets for the likes of Barnes and Austin Roscoe.

With a 16-13 lead, Hendrix scored seven straight points on his own. He followed a free throw with back-to-back 3-pointers, helping to push Terra Ceia’s lead to 25-13.

Another triple from Hendrix extended the Knights’ advantage to as much as 14 points in the second quarter. Wayne Christian used a bit of its own heat from long range to start chipping away, though.

Terra Ceia took a 50-40 lead into halftime, but looked a bit sluggish in the third. Barnes got a layup in transition to give his side a 62-50 lead, prompting the Eagles to call a timeout with 1:47 left in the period. They went on to finish the third on a 9-2 run to make it a two-possession, 64-59 game going into the fourth.

A fast-break layup completed the Eagles’ comeback, tying the game at 64 apiece with 6:55 left. Roscoe didn’t let it last long, though. He knocked down a huge 3-pointer from the wing on the next possession.

“That was huge,” Klaassen said. “We missed some gimmies, so to have that shot go through and put us up by three, that was big.”

Wayne Christian kept it close. Hendrix kept counterpunching for Terra Ceia, and a pair of free throws from Van Essendelft gave the Knights a 77-71 lead with just under three minutes left.