PARIS, Texas-Texas High had no answer for West Mesquite's 6-5 Patrick Nweke, or second half defense Tuesday at Paris High school.
Nweke rallied the Wranglers from a seven-point halftime deficit, and his teammates forced 13 turnovers in the final two quarters to give West Mesquite a 74-65 win in 5A bi-district play.
West Mesquite (23-9) advances to play Little Elm or Frisco Wakeland in the area round. The Tigers bow out of the postseason at 17-10.
Nweke scored all but two of his 16 points on layups, while helping the Wranglers dominate the glass with 16 rebounds. His twin, Mike Nweke, scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while TyWaun Hampton led the winners with 22 points.
"We couldn't stop Nweke inside; we had a lot of turnovers in the second half, while we couldn't rebound or get the ball inside," THS coach Keith Jones said. "That was the difference in the game. They were scoring inside in the second half and our points still had to come from the outside."
Senior guards Lavon Brown and Quan Hampton had the Tigers in front most of the game. Brown led Texas High (17-10) with 21 points, including three treys, while Hampton tallied 17 points.
The Tigers were still leading 54-53 after three quarters, but that changed in the opening seconds of the final period when TyWaun Hampton scored on a driving layup, and buried a trey seconds later.
"We just had way too many turnovers in the second half; the first half was the other way around," Jones said. "The kids played hard and I was proud of their effort. We just didn't do enough to finish. "They made a little adjustment defensively in the second half, and we didn't do a good job adjusting to that adjustment. They switched everything on their man-to-man pressure. We were young inside this season, and it showed tonight. We'll have those guys back next year and we've got some good jayvee guys coming."
An NBA-range trey by Brown with 1:16 left in the game cut the Tigers' deficit to six, but they could get no closer despite field goals by Hampton and Anton Coulter.
If not for the outstanding play of Mike Nweke, the Wranglers would have been down considerably more than seven points after the first half.
The Tigers played evenly in the rebounding and turnover columns, while outscoring West Mesquite in the first half, 41-34.
Quan Hampton scored 11 of his 17 points in the first quarter, and Brown poured in 11 of his 21 in the second period.
THS led early, and recaptured the lead at the start of the second quarter on a rebound and layup by Curtis Crump.
Brown took over the game at that point, the Tigers building their biggest lead of the half at 41-32. Brown also pulled down five rebounds in the first two quarters, with Tevailance Hunt contributing seven of his nine points.
Texas High 22 19 13 11 - 65
West Mesquite 23 11 19 21 - 74
THS (65): Coulter 2 0-0 5; Stanley 3 0-2 6; Brown 7 4-4 21; Hampton 5 5-5 17; Ray 0 1-2 1; Drumm 1 0-0 2; Crump 2 0-0 4; Hunt 4 0-0 9. TOTALS 24 10-13 65.
WM (74): M. Nweke 8 3-6 19; Hampton 9 0-0 22; Hernandez 1 0-0 2; Spearman 3 0-0 6; Buckley 3 2-4 9; P. Nweke 7 2-4 16. TOTALS 31 7-14 74.
3-point goals: THS, Coulter, Brown 3, Hampton 2, Hunt. WM, Hampton 4, Mallard. Team Fouls: Texas High 19, West Mesquite 14.