The boys basketball team has been living dangerously over the last few games, but they are living well.

The Titans survived a comeback from the North Quincy Red Raiders and held on for a 60-54 win Friday at the high school.

It was a game of peaks and valleys for both teams from the tip off. Pembroke found themselves down by 11 points in the second quarter but went ahead by one before halftime.

Pembroke then dominated the third quarter, only allowing one Raider basket in the final minute of the period to pad their own double-digit lead. But Jonathan Coates led North Quincy back to within a field goal in the fourth quarter before Pembroke was finally able to pull away for good down the stretch.

“We didn’t fold, and the kids made big plays,” head coach Paul Wholey said. “It was our best win of the year by far.”

Graham Edwards and James Coner carried the Titan offense in the first half, staking them to a lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Red Raider full-court press stymied the Titans in the second and allowed North Quincy to jump up by 11.

“Teams are pressuring us a lot,” Wholey said. “We’re young, we’ve had problems with pressure and we’re not going to stop seeing pressure until we prove we can beat it. Once we beat the pressure and get some points, we can go back and set up our defense.”

Pembroke eventually settled down and began to run their offense again. By halftime, the Titans erased North Quincy’s lead and took a one-point lead into the locker room.

The Titans came out of the locker room for the second half determined to make a defensive stand of their own. Big men James Gaine, Matt Negus and Dan McCourt dominated the paint on both ends of the court, while Pembroke’s pesky guards forced turnovers and did not allow North Quincy to score until there were only 40 seconds left in the half.

While Pembroke ran up a large lead with their play in the third quarter, Wholey said the key to the game was still the second quarter when Pembroke broke North Quincy’s momentum before halftime.

“I thought the key to the game was when we fell behind,” he said. “We didn’t panic, we didn’t fall apart and we kept plugging away. Before you knew it, we were up by a point at halftime.”

However, Coates broke out of his scoring slump in the fourth quarter, hitting three straight 3-pointers as part of his game-high 27 points and bringing the Red Raiders back to within a field goal.

The Titans clung to their slim lead until the final minute when sophomore guard Justin Ryan drained a clutch 3-pointer from the top of the arc to make it a three-possession game. Gaine then hit a big layup and Negus sank two big free throws in the final minute to end any hopes of another Raider comeback.

“Justin hit a huge three,” Wholey said. “Matt Negus hit two free throws and grabbed a big rebound and Gaine came up with a big basket. It was our most balanced attack.”

The Titans then moved back over the .500 mark on Tuesday in similarly dramatic fashion with a 65-63 win over Hingham on Tuesday. Pembroke finishes the Keenan Division portion of their schedule on Friday at Duxbury before returning home to face Quincy.