Like the momentum, the emotions swayed back and forth as Coal City and Manteno swapped seven ties and lead changes apiece during Monday’s IHSA Class 2A Manteno Regional quarterfinal.

In a defensive slobberknocker that stayed within two possessions for almost its entirety, the visiting Coalers broke free at the end, scoring eight of the final 10 points in a 45-37 win.

“They’d score and we’d be down, but I was confident in my team and knew we’d be back,” Coalers senior guard Dane Noffsinger, who had a team-best 15 points, said. “We’d get back up, they’d start scoring again. It was happiness then sadness, but I stayed hopeful and knew we were going to come back.”

A rematch of a Feb. 12 game at Coal City that went 48-47 to the Coalers, Monday’s tilt wasn’t much different in terms of how close it was, but offense was at more of a premium from the jump.

Noffsinger and Ramsey Owens each buried a pair of 3-pointers as parts of their respective seven-point opening frames, but aside from that, points proved tough to come by in a game between familiar Illinois Central Eight Conference rivals that had each other’s offensive goals snuffed out.

The Coalers (13-16) took an 11-9 lead after Noffsinger’s second first-quarter triple came just before the horn, but six second-chance points in the second helped the Panthers (13-17) pull ahead 19-15 at the break.

Carter Nicholson scored the first two buckets of the second half to tie things at 19 a little less than three minutes into the third. Coal City’s Connor Henline countered a Braden Campbell bucket to tie it at 21 before Campbell, who had a game-high 16 points in his final prep basketball game, matched a Noffsinger 3-pointer to tie it 24 with 3:24 in the third.

Henline and Gavin Berger combined for nine Coal City points to end the third, but Campbell’s old-fashioned three-point play in the waning seconds of the third was followed by Owens’ 3-pointer to start the fourth that knotted things at 33.

But down the stretch, the Coalers rose to even higher defensive heights. Julian Micetich broke the tie with back-to-back buckets to give the Coalers the final lead change, as an Eric Eldridge layup was the only scoring the Panthers did between Owens’ 3-pointer with 6:45 left and Campbell’s bucket that made it 42-37 with 1:12 left.

Emphasizing their defensive switching out of their man-to-man look, Noffsinger said there was one piece of the puzzle that proved the biggest on that side of the floor.

“The communication,” Noffsinger said. “We were very good at switching and talking everything out. I think we adapted compared to last time, through film and practices and stuff. I think we were better prepared.”

Winners of three of their last four, the Coalers may be the bottom seed of their regional, the sub-sectional’s nine seed, as they take on top regional seed and No. 2 overall Pontiac (19-8) on Wednesday, but that doesn’t concern them.

With seven losses by five points or less, the Coalers could be entering the regional semis with a much different record and higher seed. But Coal City coach Joe Micetich said that after last year’s team reached 20 wins thanks to several one-possession wins, this year started to average things out, but their close losses earlier in the year helped them play their best basketball at the right time of year.

“It’s almost like we borrowed all the wins from this season last season,” he said. “All the games were going the other way and it just felt like a curse. I just kept telling the kids that eventually being in these tight games will benefit us, they’ll start to swing our way and we’ll start to win. It finally did and now we’re on a little bit of a streak.”

A young Panthers team saw Campbell, Mitchell Boyd and Eldridge play their last games, but have an exciting core set to return in Owens (13 points), Dylan Polito and Quinn Campbell, three sophomores that started on Monday.

“You look around the area and there’s a lot of good players returning,” Myers said. “Reed-Custer has four starters that are sophomores, Peotone will return four or five starters. I look forward to next year, but we also have to understand the importance of the summer.”