Laurel was able to hit its free throws when it mattered most.

The Spartans were able to bring home a 66-65 WPIAL Section 1-AA victory from host Summit Academy.

Down by one point with 25 seconds left, Scott Siddall was able to steal the ball and hit two free throws to take the lead. Summit’s Terrell Turner was fouled and hit one of two free throws to tie the game.

Mason Mraz drew a foul and hit one of two free throws with three seconds left to take the lead, and a last-second heave from Summit Academy was off its mark.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Laurel coach Ken Locke said. “When you go down there, it’s a tough place to play. We battled, our guys had to dig down and it was a good test to see what we were made of.”

Mraz fell just short of his second triple-double of the year, tallying 20 points, 10 assists and eight boards for the Spartans (7-1, 11-3).

The confidence that the Spartans have in Mraz, a sophomore, kept Laurel’s mind at ease with all of the pressure on the guard’s shoulders.

“He’s a good foul shooter and we have confidence in him,” Locke said. “We have a lot of foul shooters, but we want him at the line.”

Jacob Wilson followed with 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals and Siddall added 13 points.

“It wasn’t our best performance but we fought hard,” Locke said. “We had different guys step up in different situations. Even the guys that don’t show up in the stats really battled for us on both ends of the floor.”

Dennis Richardson paced the Knights (0-7, 1-11) with 15 points. Anthony Rentas and Turner each had 13 points and Bilal Muhammad contributed 10.