Varsity edged the Mid City Magic Lions in a thriller to claim its first win of the season on Saturday.
It claimed an 89-88 victory in the bottom of the table clash in Dunedin club basketball, leaving both teams with one win from five games.
A 45-point performance from Micah Lepaio could not get the Lions over the line, as missed free throws down the stretch proved costly.
The game remained tight throughout and after the scores were locked at 25-25 at the end of the first quarter, before the Lions pulled out to 49-44 at halftime.
Varsity fought back with a strong third quarter, holding the Lions to 16 points and pouring in 26 of its own.
Lepaio was the source of 14 of those 16 for the Lions.
It proved the key period.
The Lions fought back and held a one-point lead down the stretch, but Jimmy Ellison made two free throws to put Varsity in front.
It was able to hold on from there, as the Lions came up short in their final bid to win the game.
Emerson Watson led a balanced scoring effort for Varsity with 17, while brothers Jimmy and Tommy Ellison chipped in with 16 and 13 each.
•The St Kilda Saints bounced back from last week's loss with a 99-71 win over the Andy Bay Falcons.
The game was blown open in the third quarter, as the Saints recorded a 31-14 quarter score on the back of 15 points from Matt Gillan.
He poured in three three-pointers in a row in that period, as the Falcons were guilty of leaving the league's most deadly outside threat open.
Gillan finished with 33 points, while point guard James Ross had 29 and Jamie Macdonald added 18.
For the Falcons, Matt Bazsika led the way with 15 points, while Hamish Robertson and Tom Davison both added 11.
The day's early game, between the Mid City Magic and City Rise Bombers, was deferred and will probably be played on Thursday.
A rim on court one was broken during warm-ups and no other courts were available for the game.
The other two games were shifted to court four.
