For awhile it seemed the Island Coast Gators would be a blowout victim just one night after pulling out a big victory at Cypress Lake.

North Fort Myers swished five three-pointers in the first half to lead by as many as 14 points on the way to a 34-23 halftime lead, but cooled off considerably in the second half in the face of the Gators’ comeback bid.

The Gators won the free-throw-shooting contest in the fourth quarter, to pull out a 55-54 victory at North Thursday night.

“North’s first quarter was unreal the way they hit three-pointers,” said Gators coach Greg Coleman. “I figured they would not keep shooting like that the whole game.”

The Gators, who shot just 7-of-31 (22 percent) from the floor in the first half, caught fire in the third quarter while the Red Knights managed just three field goals and the teams entered the fourth quarter tied 40-40. The Gators hit 9-of-21 shots (43 percent) in the second half.

“When we tied it in the third quarter I thought we could get back on track,” said Coleman. “It was a whole new ball game. Being tied we could sit back in our zone and that was the turning point in the fourth quarter. We couldn’t have done that trailing by nine points.”

The fourth quarter turned into a free-throw-shooting contest. The Gators hit 8-of-13 in the period and North made just 4-of-9.

After exchanging the lead twice more in the opening two minutes of the fourth, the Gators took the lead 46-45 on a Patrique Chery free throw with 3:59 to go. Seven of the Gators’ last nine points came at the free throw line.

North knotted the score for the last time at 54-54 on a three-pointer by Andrew Malaise with 40 seconds remaining.

Island Coast ran the clock down to 8.5 seconds and called timeout to set up a final shot. The ball went to Terrell Griffin at the top of the key and he was fouled driving the lane for a layup with 2.4 seconds left. Griffin missed the first free throw, stepped back and took a deep breath, then sank the second for the game-winning point.

North still had a chance to swipe victory from the jaws of defeat with a length-of-the-floor in-bounds pass, but the Gators’ Kyle Harding went up high to intercept the pass, but fell backwards to the floor with the ball and was called for traveling. The buzzer went off, but officials put 6/10ths of a second back on the clock.

North was awarded a throw-in in their own front court, but Malaise’s catch-and-shoot three-pointer at the buzzer fell short of the target.

“These guys just kept scratching their way back,” said Coleman, “and they’ve been able to find ways to win ball games all season.”

Tim Dal Bon and Griffin finished with 12 points apiece to lead the Gators. Griffin and Dal Bon grabbed 10 rebounds each and Dal Bon had a team-high five assists despite missing the last 4 1/2 minutes with five fouls.

Brandon Makar topped the Red Knights with 16 points, including four of their seven three-pointers. Malaise finished with 12 points.

The Red Knights visit Cypress Lake Friday night.

The Gators (11-8) are idle until next Friday when they visit Mariner.

Island Coast11 12 17 15 – 55

North FM21 13 6 14 – 54

ISLAND COAST 55 – Chery 5, Gomez 2, Dungan 6, Dal Bon 12, Griffin 12, Harding 4, Orellana 2, Rees 8, Morris 4. Totals: 17 17-26 55.

3PG: Dal Bon 2, Harding 1, Rees 1.

NORTH 54 – Makar 16, Beerbower 3, Malaise 12, Santiago 8, Crowell 8, Schneider 7. Totals: 20 7-18 54.

3PG: Makar 4, Beerbower 1, Malaise 2.

Cape Coral 69, Dunbar 64: Cape Coral opened a big lead in the first half and then withstood a late comeback bid to beat Dunbar.

“We’ve lost four games by a total of seven points and we wanted to avoid that again,” said Seahawks coach Mark Rinehart. “We overcame going 3-for-10 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter when we were trying to win it.”

James McIntyre led the Seahawks with 20 points, Chase Galuzny added 16 and Justin Mitchell added 11 to go with six rebounds, four assists and five steals.

The Seahawks (10-8) host Ida Baker in the final district game Friday night.

Dunbar11 21 13 19 – 64

Cape Coral25 14 16 14 – 69

DUNBAR 64 – White 2, Strawbridge 16, D. Jackson 3, Williams 6, Barnes 17, B. Jackson 10, Hendricks 9. Totals: 25 9-17 64.

3PG: Hendricks 2, Barnes 1, Williams 1.

CAPE 69 – Henry 4, Mitchell 11, Galuzny 16, Flynn 3, McIntyre 20, Bailey 2, Daniels 2, Marshall 6, Figueroa 6. Totals: 24 18-31 69.

3PG: Galuzny 2, McIntyre 1, Marshall 1.

Bishop Verot 69, LaBelle 46: Nate Howard, Ricky Doyle and Mason Taylor combined for 51 points to outscore LaBelle by themselves and lead Bishop Verot’s victory.

Howard topped all scorers with 20 points to go with 11 rebounds and eight assists. Doyle added 18 points and 10 rebounds and Taylor had 13 points. Mark Wagner nearly had a double-double with 11 assists and nine rebounds to go with five points.

The Vikings (12-4) take on Venice Saturday at Charlotte.

Bishop Verot14 17 21 17 – 69

LaBelle13 7 15 11 – 46

VEROT 69 – Wagner 5, Taylor 13, Reeves 8, Hoop 1, Williams 4, Doyle 18, Howard 20. Totals: 25 14-20 69.

3PG: Howard 3, Reeves 2, Taylor 1.

LaBELLE 46 – Ford 18, Burton 2, Johnson 3, Bass 6, Jones 14, Baptiste 3. Totals: 18 6-14 46.

3PG: Ford 1, Johnson 1, Jones 2.

Girls Soccer

North Fort Myers 7, Lehigh 0: Melinda Lukas scored three goals and Katie Traurig added two to lead North Fort Myers to a shutout victory over Lehigh.

Hannah Hamilton and Sagan Tully each added one goal while Brianna Hawkins and Lukas had one assist apiece.

The Red Knights (12-2-1) host Cape Coral Friday night.

Bishop Verot 1, Riverdale 1: Kady Otzko’s goal with 17 minutes left to play salvaged a tie for Bishop Verot against Riverdale.

The Vikings (9-3-3) finish the regular season Friday night at Fort Myers.

Boys Soccer

Cape Coral 5, Dunbar 2: Cape Coral chalked up their 16th victory with a win over Dunbar.

Jordan Taylor scored two goals to lead the Seahawks while Ben Feakins, Oscar Camacho and Arthe Lis each added one goal. Lis also had two assists with Nico Rubio, Gerardo Carizzo and Camacho adding one assist each.

Kayck Freire tended the net and made seven saves for the Seahawks (16-0-3), who host Ida Baker Friday in their final District 4A-11 match.

Fort Myers 7, Island Coast 0: Island Coast lost to Fort Myers in the regular-season finale.

Goalkeeper Matthew Dal Bon still made 10 saves for the Gators (1-14-1).