LORAIN — It was the kind of tense, competitive game nearly everyone expected to kick off a new girls basketball season, and it went down to the wire.

In a thriller between crosstown rivals, Elyria nipped Elyria Catholic 43-39 on Friday, the opening night of the 11th annual Lorain County Holiday Classic at Admiral King.

It was the first time that classic games were not played on the Pioneers’ floor. And although it nearly became the first Elyria High loss in the history of the tournament, the Pioneers won their 21st straight game. No other team has ever won the championship.

At 7:30 tonight, they’ll take on the host Admirals in the championship game for the third straight year. Elyria defeated King 57-45 last season and 61-53 in 2007. Elyria Catholic and Keystone play for third place at 6 p.m.

Elyria and EC played for the first time since they met in the 2004 Holiday Classic final, which the Pioneers won, 66-32. The Panthers’ were appearing in the tournament for the first time since ‘04.

Elyria junior Nais Williams, who led all scorers with 12 points, finally put the game out of reach when she nailed two free throws with .7 of a second left. Until she did, the Panthers — trailing 41-39 in the last 10 seconds — might have caught the Pioneers with a basket, or won the game with a 3-pointer.

“I was really excited that our team worked so hard,” said Williams. “We practiced hard every day — we worked real hard to win this game because it was important to us. I knew we had to step up our game a little bit and that rebounding was an important part.”

Elyria fell behind 6-0 in the first two minutes, caught the Panthers at 16 halfway through the second quarter and led 22-21 at the break. But when Sara Schneider and Emily Taylor scored early in the third quarter, the Panthers led 25-22. It was their last lead of the night.

The Pioneers got a turnaround jumper from Williams, and when Brigette Jones scored a putback at 5:34 of the quarter, she was also fouled and converted the three-point play for a 27-25 Elyria lead. Less than 20 seconds later, they got another three-point play from Alecia Jones, who scored on a fastbreak, was fouled and made the free throw.

“All the girls on the floor busted their butts, both teams,” said Panthers coach Eric Rothgery. “Everybody put out a great effort. But it’s tough to lose that way. Our girls have looked forward to this game for a long time. They had set their sights on it, but we got beat. We just couldn’t get the shots to drop when we needed them to.”

It was a big win for the Pioneers, who lost three important starters through graduation in June — Lorain County Miss Basketball Tai Dotson, forward Tess Sito and guard Kortney Schweitzer. They also lost top scorer Cynthia Woodard and senior Ashlee Stolarski, who decided not to play this season.

“We have to play defense this season and we have to rebound the ball,” said Elyria coach Mike Walsh. “We can’t give people second opportunities and most of the time we did that tonight. Most of the time, they got one opportunity and we were boxing out (on the backboards) all over the place.”

Elyria got 11 points, including two 3-pointers, from junior Sunny Seymore, and 10 points and 17 rebounds from senior Brigette Jones, who has averaged a double-double the last two seasons. Williams grabbed seven boards, including a biggie late in the action that denied the Panthers a second shot that would have produced a tie.

“I think defense and rebounding were our biggest keys tonight,” Brigette Jones said. “That’s what was going to get us a win. We had to box out and we focused on boxing out their big people (Sara Schneider and Ashley Schuster). This meant a lot to us, because a lot of people thought EC was supposed to win.”

Panthers junior stars Emily Taylor, their acrobatic guard, and Schneider, a 6-foot post, scored 10 points apiece. Taylor, who led the team with 16 points per game last year, had the Pioneers’ Alecia Jones shadowing her defensively most of the night.

“I thought Alecia did a great job on her,” said Walsh.

EC got seven points from junior post Schuster, including five straight that pulled EC to within 37-36 late in the third quarter.

Contact Bob Daniels at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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