Benji George was confident about his decision to keep Christian Carmichael in the final minute of Friday night’s game, despite the fact that the senior forward carried four fouls.

And in the eyes of the Manhattan High boys basketball team and its head coach, it was a good decision.

Because as chaos set in with the Indians up 57-55 on Highland Park with a mere 20 seconds remaining, the Scots’ Malik Keith eyed the basket and lifted a floater.

Carmichael was not interested. He swatted it in the opposite direction. The MHS north gym erupted.

And instead of further drama, the Indians slammed the door on a potential Highland Park comeback and escaped with a victory, 60-55.

It was his team’s depth that allowed for the head coach’s confidence in Carmichael to avoid a fifth foul.

“It didn’t worry us all that much, because if he does foul out, then we have Cade [Roberts] right there, and our other bigs,” George said. “We’re deep when it comes to the big spot.”

On top of his deciding block Friday night, Carmichael has begun to transform into a potent threat on both offense and defense for Manhattan through the last several contests. George said Carmichael’s growth is rooted in the senior’s effort.

“His biggest thing is if he gives energy. If he’s giving energy, and he’s active, he’s so long and athletic, he can create chaos on the court at times,” George said. “He gives us another element that makes us hard to guard.”

Sandwiched around the deciding blocked shot were senior Gabe Awbrey’s free throws that parried the Scots’ relentless attempts at a rally. Awbrey connected on 8-of-10 in the fourth frame alone.

Two of the foul shots came immediately after Highland Park took a 52-51 lead with three minutes to play. George said that after the Scots snatched the lead, his message remained steady.

“We talked before the game about weathering the storm and being resilient. And that was the message there,” he said. “I don’t think there was any panic in them.”

For as frenzied as the atmosphere that surrounded him in the final seconds was, Awbrey’s mindset was rather straightforward.

“Just got to knock them down,” he said. “That’s all I was thinking.”

“There’s not one other guy out there I would have wanted at the line,” George said of Awbrey. “He does what great players do, and what leaders do.”

The fourth quarter was when it peaked, but the comeback Highland Park staged began late in the third.

After Manhattan claimed a 40-28 lead, the Scots’ Ahmad Fox ripped off an 8-0 run by his lonesome, and his team clawed back to within five, at 40-35. Junior Tommy Ekart did his best to suppress the resurgence with a three from the right corner, but the Scots had been reinvigorated.

“[Highland Park has] a lot of pride. They’re a talented team,” George said of the Scots’ rally. “I told the guys, ‘you’re going to get a team than what played the other night.’ And we definitely saw that tonight.”

It did not take long for Highland Park to inject the contest with a dose of tension in the fourth frame. Harold Emanuel finished inside, and on the Scots’ ensuing possession, Keith drained a three from two feet behind the arc.

The next Highland Park basket was from Jahlil Osby, and it gave the Scots the lead — a lead that lasted just nine seconds, until Awbrey returned to the free throw line.

Osby struck again on his team’s very next possession with a corner triple, but Manhattan’s 11-of-16 mark at the free throw line in the fourth quarter proved too much for Highland Park.

Awbrey, who totaled a game-high 18 points, said he expected the Scots to make a run, but he didn’t know when it would arrive.

“I anticipated them to make a run at some point in the game; I didn’t know when it would be,” he said. “It happened to be in the fourth quarter, so that’s when we had to be ready for it.”

The Indians raced out to a 17-14 lead after the first quarter, but the defense picked up on both sides in the second. Manhattan entered halftime with a 26-20 lead facing a Highland Park zone, one that did not catch George by surprise.

“It didn’t completely surprise me. I knew they played some zone,” he said. “It did make it hard. They were changing defenses a lot, but we handled it OK for the most part.”

Keith’s athleticism helped the zone churn, but Manhattan was more concerned with his scoring ability, and for good reason: Keith leads all Topeka schools in the scoring department. Awbrey said his team’s defensive blueprint on the guard was not to completely stop him.

“[The strategy on defense was] don’t shut him down, but try and slow him down,” Awbrey said. “You’re not just going to shut him down. But we tried to slow him down, and I think we were able to do that for, at least, parts of the game.”

After completing what George called after the game a “four-game mini-season” without a loss, the Indians now look ahead to the Tournament of Champions in Dodge City Thursday through Saturday, a field stacked with five ranked teams. He said he expects his players to approach the tournament as if they are headed to the state tournament in Wichita.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “When we tell the kids that we’re going to treat it like we’re going to the state tournament, they understand that. They’re mature enough to understand that.”

For now, though, Manhattan will get an opportunity to meditate upon a perfect 9-0 start, the first such start since 1955.

The streak began when the Indians claimed the Hays City Shoot-Out in December, a tournament George celebrated in the locker room by completing several dance moves. But after Friday night’s win, his message might have disappointed his players.

“I told them my foot hurts too bad to dance,” George said. “Or I would have danced for them.”