The Lovett boys' and Pace girls' basketball teams both advanced to the championship games of the Westminster Holiday Classic Thursday night with wins Wednesday in the semifinals.

The Lions edged Wesleyan in an overtime battle, 64-63, with Noah Dickerson playing the role of hero in regulation and in OT. His put-back of his own miss as time expired tied the game at 59 to force overtime, and his free throw broke a 63-63 tie for the final margin.

Dickerson finished with 17 points to lead the Lions, and Cyrus Wilson added 15.

Drew Brown came up with a critical steal with four seconds left in overtime, and though he missed his free throw on the other end, the Wolves were unable to get off a shot in time.

Lovett fell behind 16-8 early in the first quarter but rebounded to make the game a see-saw battle in the second half. They took a 53-44 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer by Brown, but Wesleyan rallied to take the lead before Dickerson's heroics at the end of regulation.

The Lions will face Alpharetta in the finals tonight at 7:30 p.m. Lovett defeated Pace Academy 50-39 Tuesday in its first game.

In the girls' bracket, Pace defeated Class AAAA squad Pope 55-32 Wednesday night after knocking off Athens Academy in its first game Tuesday. After a shaky start that saw the Knights spot Pope the first seven points, they went on a 21-3 run to take a 21-10 lead and never let the Greyhounds get within single figures.

Morgan Batey led the Knights with 23 points, and Haley Zwecker added 20.

"I think we took it out of them that second quarter," said Pace coach Regina Tate. "The first half, we took the breath out of them from a defensive standpoint, and offensively, we were hitting. Morgan hit a couple 3’s, Haley hit some 3’s and got to the basket."

Pace will face Kennesaw Mountain in the finals today at 6 p.m.