Webb City stormed its way back into the game on multiple occasions, but in the end, Pittsburg staved off the Cardinals for a 64-57 triumph in the 4-States Challenge on Saturday night at the Cardinal Dome.

Webb City (3-2) trailed Pittsburg (4-0) by as many as 15 points in the third quarter but managed to cut the deficit to three on a layup by Nickhai Howard with 9.7 seconds remaining in the fourth.

The Purple Dragons, however, iced the win with two free throws apiece by Gavyn Elkamil and Brett Wiemers.

"(Webb City) just kept battling back and battling back," Pittsburg coach Kiley Roelfs said. "I thought we played well in stretches. We didn't maintain it long enough, but to their credit, I thought their kids competed really hard and kept giving themselves a chance to get back into the game. Fortunately for us, we kind of made enough plays in those stretches to really give the lead back (in the second half)."

Pittsburg jumped on Webb City early with five makes from 3-point range in the first quarter and ultimately built a 28-14 advantage just a couple of minutes into the second.

But then the Cardinals came roaring back, using an 18-3 run to take a brief lead, 32-31, with less than a minute left in the first half.

"Defensively we got a lot more aggressive," Webb City coach Jason Horn said. "We started to close out on the ball a lot better, and that gave us more opportunities to get on some runouts and get in transition."

The Dragons finished the first half on a high note as Javon Grant registered a layup and a triple in the final seconds to give his team a four-point advantage at the break.

"I felt good about the way we were playing even after they came back at us with that run," Roelfs said. "I felt like we were getting the shots we wanted, and if we kept doing that, they'd eventually start to fall for us. And they did."

Grant's five quick points at the end of the first half ended up turning into a 16-0 run for Pittsburg as it scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to go up 47-32.

"The third quarter kind of started out the way we started the game," Horn said. "We were just a little disorganized and not keeping our composure. You can't do that against a good team like Pittsburg. You let them go on a 16-0 run, and that makes it really tough to try and mount a comeback."

Webb City came close to mounting such a comeback in the final period, using a 15-5 spurt to come to within three points, 54-51, with 1:30 left in the game. But from there, the teams exchanged buckets before the Purple Dragons sealed the victory from the charity stripe.

Grant finished with 24 points and four makes from beyond the arc. Jerek Butcher, who had three triples, finished with 13 points while Brett Wiemers chipped in 11 points.

Alex Gaskill and Terrell Kabala led the scoring for Webb City with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Tanner Rogers finished with 10.