GRAVETTE -- A look of relief flashed across Terence Pierce's face as his 3-pointer settled into the net.

His long shot with 1 minute, 27 seconds left in the third quarter was historic in that it broke Gravette's career scoring record, held by Mike Queen. It was a shot that had been weighing on the senior guard for the past few games.

"This was a huge distraction," Pierce said after scoring 21 points in the Lions' 56-51 win over Ozark in 4A-1 Conference boys basketball action Friday night. Pierce added a late layup to seal the win, pushing his career scoring mark to 1,629 points.

More importantly to both Pierce and Lions' coach, Dustin Peters, Gravette (10-3, 3-0) remained unbeaten in the 4A-1 heading into a home game against Berryville on Saturday, a game that was postponed Tuesday due to weather.

Gravette had 27 turnovers and shot just 3 of 21 from behind the 3-point line. The Lions squandered a double-digit lead in the second half, but held on at the end, thanks to some clutch free-throw shooting.

"We didn't shoot the ball well," Peters said. "It's just one of those things. You're not going to play well every night. We turned it over a hundred times it seemed like. We just weren't very sharp."

Ozark scrapped back from a 36-26 deficit in the third quarter behind Jake Simpson, who scored 14 of the Hillbillies' next 17 points and finished with a game-high 32.

Simpson hurt the Lions with slashing drives to the bucket that resulted in a lot of fouls. He shot 16 free throws in the game, hitting 14.

The Hillbillies (4-11, 0-4) trailed 52-51 when Cole Yell hit a floater in the lane with 29.7 seconds left. But Gravette's Otto Troutner and Kyle Fox each hit two clutch free throws to seal the win.

"This bunch the past couple of years, they find ways to win," Peters said. "We might not play very well. If we don't shoot the ball from the perimeter, we're not going to look very good. And we didn't do that tonight. But they found a way to win."

GIRLS

OZARK 64

GRAVETTE 29

Kylie Ladd scored a game-high 13 points and the Lady Hillbillies (15-1, 4-0) rolled to a mercy rule win.

Olivia Melton added 10 for Ozark, which led 36-16 at halftime. Sam Pruitt led Gravette (2-9, 0-3) with 11 points.