Midway through the fourth quarter, what had been a 20-point lead three minutes earlier having been chipped to single digits, there was growing concern among the folks who filled the home stands inside the Arts & Sciences gym.
The only man who actually gets paid to worry about such things wasn't one of them.
Even with his team's lead faltering a bit, longtime Patriots basketball coach Mark Dragoo remained calm and actually welcomed the small dose of adversity. And as it turned out, his confidence paid off as CSAS pulled away late to take a 49-37 win over Rockwood in a Region 2-A quarterfinal Sunday evening.
"We've lost some close games this season, so I thought it was good for us to see the clock counting down and our lead slipping a little, just to see how we would respond," Dragoo said. "Our guys didn't panic and came back to finish the game strong.
"We played really, really well for three quarters, so I'm not going to get too upset about a few minutes early in the fourth. Especially since we responded to it so well."
The Patriots (16-13) advance to Tuesday's semfinals at Roane State, where they will take on the winner of today's quarterfinal between Harriman (25-6) and Copper Basin (11-16).
CSAS began the game with a 9-0 scoring burst and parlayed its defensive quickness into a comfortable margin throughout the first half, taking a 13-point lead into halftime. The Patriots continued to cruise in the third, limiting the Tigers to just five points in the quarter to take a 20-point lead that made it feel as if the game had been put away.
But Rockwood fought back to open the fourth, and when Austin Orr drove the lane for a layup, the visitors trailed by just nine with 3:40 remaining.
Despite making only half of their 16 free throws in the fourth quarter - and no field goals in the final eight minutes - the Patriots advanced to a region semifinal for the 17th time in 18 seasons. They missed out on that stage of the postseason a year ago.
"That was in the back of our minds, and we definitely didn't want a repeat of what happened last year," said Patriots guard Cahlib Edwards, who led all scorers with 17 points. "We came out focused and got on them early and then just stuck to our game plan the rest of the way."
Troy Pride added 14 points for CSAS, which limited Rockwood to single-digit scoring in each of the first three quarters.
"It's all about survive and advance this time of year," Dragoo said. "It doesn't have to always be pretty as long as the end result is that you're still playing."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.