Todd Rose | Daily Press Carney-Nadeau’s Beau Koffman (5) shoots over Forest Park’s Greydon Fischer (50) Friday at Carney. Looking on for the Trojans is Brad Stacy (4).

CARNEY — It all came down to two free throws Friday night for the Forest Park Trojans boys’ basketball team (3-7), which defeated the Carney-Nadeau Wolves (7-7) 46-44 in Carney.

The victory snapped a seven-game skid for the Trojans.

“It feels good (to get the win),” said Forest Park coach Kurt Lehmann. “We’ve been close in a couple games, and that’s what I talked about before the game. We need to get over that hump. We can’t be close anymore this late in the season … We showed that we’re capable of doing it tonight, and hopefully, we continue with it.”

Up until 6.1 seconds remaining in the game, the Trojans had gone 0-8 on free throws.

With the score tied at 44, Gavin Johson was fouled with Forest Park in bonus. He went to the line shooting one and one and sank both of them cleanly. Johnson led the Trojans in scoring with 15 points.

“Hitting those two free throws down the stretch in pressure time like that is huge,” said Lehmann. “It’s what you expect out of a senior leader.”

Another factor that kept the Trojans in contention was a strong defensive second quarter. After Carney scored 17 in the first, Forest Park held them to just two in the second.

The effort put them back in striking distance, 19-16, at the end of the half.

“We threw a couple different defenses at them,” Lehmann said. “I think we just cleaned things and settled down a little bit … and held them to one shot. If you hold a team like this to one shot per possession you should be pretty successful.

“I’m happy for them. They’ve stayed positive through this seven-game skid here, and I think they really deserve this. I’m proud of them.”

Keall Emmers also broke into double digits for the Trojans with 13 points.

For the Wolves, the loss boiled down to missed opportunities and breakdowns on defense said coach Paul Polfus.

“We just fell asleep on the backside of our defense,” Polfus said. “We let too many easy baskets happen. That kind of stuff just can’t happen.”

Polfus, despite the loss, was happy with the team’s effort but said some things will need to be cleaned up.

Beau Koffman had 23 points for Carney and Jerry Lee LaFord 13. The majority of points for the pair came from three-point baskets. Koffman had five, LaFord 4.

“I was sort of hoping Beau (and Jerry) would hunt out his shot a little bit more,” said Polfus. “When you’re shooting good, you have to look for it even a little bit more than what you did before.

“For periods at a time, I thought we shot the ball pretty good and was sort of happy with our execution at times. I guess you take the positives out of games like this one when it gets down this far in the year and keep on plugging away.”

Up next for the Wolves will be Bark River-Harris on Wednesday in Harris. The Trojans battle Stephenson Tuesday in Crystal Falls.

Forest Park 8 8 14 16 — 46

Carney-Nadeau 17 2 16 9 — 44

Forest Park –Johnson 15, Emmers 13, Showers 8, Kopf 3, McKissack 3, Rintala 2, Stacy 2; F: 7; FT: 2-10; Fuled out: None; 3-point field goals: Kopf, Johnson, Emmers, McKissack.

Carney-Nadeau — Koffman 23, LaFord 12, Kakuk 9; F: 11; FT: 0-0; Fouled out: Imhoff; 3-point field goals: Koffman 5, LaFord 4, Kakuk.