12:09 AM CST on Wednesday, February 22, 2006

By BRANDON GEORGE / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON – Irving's boys basketball players weren't about to let this game slip away.

Not after the fight their parents, coaches and administrators put up last week just to give them a chance to play in the postseason.

Playing without coach Steven Perry, Irving survived two potential tying 3-point attempts in the final seconds to hold off Grapevine, 48-45, in a Class 5A Region I bi-district playoff Tuesday at Arlington Lamar.

Irving (21-10) advances to face Plano (24-8) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in an area-round game at Hebron.

"It has been an emotional week for all of us," said Irving assistant coach John Bass, who replaced the suspended Perry. "We're happy we were given a second chance."

Last Wednesday, Irving was stripped of 10 District 6-5A wins and its playoff berth because it had used an ineligible player. The initial ruling led to Grand Prairie replacing Irving in the postseason.

But at a meeting Thursday night with Irving administrators, Irving parents lobbied for an appeal to be filed with the UIL. And Friday in Waco, the UIL state executive committee reinstated Irving into the playoffs after invoking a 5-year-old mercy rule, which gives the UIL the leeway to punish a coach rather than the team.

The state committee suspended Perry for the playoffs and placed him on probation for two years. Perry couldn't even watch Tuesday's game.

"We felt like there was a lot of pressure on us this first game, because we didn't want to let everyone down who had fought for us," said Irving senior Adron Tennell, who scored a game-high 23 points on 8-for-20 shooting. "We wanted to play hard for them and get a victory."

Irving held Grapevine without a field goal in the second quarter, and its defense intensified in the game's final seconds. After Tennell missed the second of two free throws, Grapevine (24-10) had to settle for two unsuccessful 3-point shots in the final seconds.

"I thought our defensive pressure in the second quarter won the ballgame for us – it was a momentum shift," Bass said.