SANFORD — It's not all wrapped up just yet, but the Green Hope men's basketball team might've clinched themselves a playoff spot with their 58-53 win at Lee County on Tuesday.

Had the Falcons (9-14, 5-8) lost, they would have been eliminated from playoff contention since Lee County had already won the first meeting between the two and Cary fell to Panther Creek on the same night. All that means nothing now.

With just a game left in the regular season, Green Hope has a one-game advantage on Lee (6-15, 4-9). The Falcons host Athens Drive on Friday and Lee plays at Apex.

"That was huge," coach Mickey Bissette said of the win.

The importance placed on this game was magnified when The Cary News first broke the story of the Fuquay-Varina team having to forfeit their wins, including one to Lee County. The result meant Lee and Green Hope were tied in the conference standings going into Tuesday.

"We talked about it yesterday and I knew there was a possibility earlier in the week that [Lee] was going to pick up a win from Fuquay and that worried me because if we come down here and end up losing tonight, even if we tied with them, they would get the spot because they beat us twice," Bissette said. "I think we were a little tight in the beginning as a result."

The Falcons were outscored by Lee 23-11 in the second quarter, falling behind 31-25 at half. Green Hope didn't regain the lead until late in the fourth quarter.

Down 51-48, Mo Somajdabi sank a 3-pointer with 1:48 left to tie the game. He finished with 13 points.

"Mo hit a huge three. He's struggled with his outside shot and he and I have talked a little bit in the office of him taking on the role of another scorer," Bissette said. "If we don't hit it on that possession, Lee was going to slow the game down and we would've had to go to fouling."

Playing with four fouls, senior Sam Archer blocked Lee's K.J. Wiley on a baseline jumper, then fired the ball up court to a streaking Somajdabi. Somajdabi drew a blocking foul on his layup, then hit 1-of-2 free throws to take Green Hope's first lead since the second quarter.

Archer was instrumental in the game's final two minutes.

After Somajdabi's free throw took the lead with 1:19 left, Archer grabbed an offensive rebound on the Falcons' next possession and got fouled on the put-back. He sank the next two free throws to put his team up 54-51 with 1:03 left.

Lee's Dequan Swann scored two to bring the Jackets' within one, but it was the only points scored by a Lee player in the final two minutes. Archer sank two more free throws with 30.3 seconds left to push the lead back to three.

"I was so nervous, but we practice like a million free throws," Archer said.

Lee's Isaiah Williams had a chance to tie things back up, but he missed a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds on the clock, and Green Hope held on for victory.

The Falcons aren't quite out of the dark yet, however. Should they lose to Athens on Friday and Lee defeat Apex at Apex — something only two teams have done this year by a combined five points — then the two teams would be tied in the conference standings.

Most likely, the teams would draw for conference tournament seeding on Saturday and then play some sort of do-or-die game after the conference tournament — that is, if the teams don't meet head-to-head in the conference tournament.

"I prefer not to worry about that right now to be perfectly honest," Bissette said.