Texas High's fourth-quarter surge to overtake Mount Pleasant came too late.
THS outscored the visiting Tigers by 10 points in the final quarter, falling to Mount Pleasant, 70-65, in a District 16-5A boys basketball game Tuesday at Tiger Center.
MP (19-4, 4-0) shot 53 percent from the field on 31 of 59 shooting. Texas High (9-8, 1-2) finished at 42 percent after a 36 percent shooting percentage in the first half. THS was 25 of 60 from the floor.
Texas High also out-rebounded Mount Pleasant, 37-34, but the visiting Tigers had 14 points on offensive put-backs compared to four for the home Tigers. THS committed 21 turnovers and forced 17 turnovers.
"We came out dead in the first quarter and then again at the beginning of the third quarter," Texas High coach Keith Jones said. "We gave up 17 points during those two runs, and it's hard to come back from 17 points against a good team. There's going to be runs during the game, but you can't come out dead at the beginning of each half."
Holding a 33-30 lead at intermission, Mount Pleasant scored the first 10 points of the second half to go up 43-30. The advantage was 15 (54-39) entering the fourth quarter.
Texas High opened the fourth on a 7-2 rally and then had a 9-1 run as Elias Thurman nailed one of his two 3-pointers followed by a pair of treys buy Caleb Wilson for THS, cutting its deficit to 59-55. With 2:00 left Thurman drained another of his game-high six 3s to make it 63-62-the closest it had been since the score was tied at 21-all.
Mount Pleasant responded with seven consecutive points, and Kyle Wright sunk the ninth 3-pointer of the night for THS int he final minute to cap the scoring.
"The kids did a great job of responding late; we adjusted in the fourth quarter and started pressing them," Jones said. "We caused a lot of turnovers and it got us going a little bit. I think we scored more in the fourth quarter than we had the two previous quarters (combined). We missed three open looks for 3-pointers down the stretch; they just didn't fall."
C.J. Kelley led the Tigers with 22 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks. Thurman scored 19, and Wright added 10.
Buddy McGill led Mount Pleasant with 18 points, Kevin Savage had 17 and K.J. Cannon 13. McGill pulled down 12 rebounds and Cannon added nine boards.
THS won the junior varsity game, 70-63. Tae Richardson led Texas High with 14 points, Jaquez Roberson and Myles Washington had 12 each, and Matt Arnold and Carlos Phillips had 10 apiece.
Aaron Antone led MP woth 24 points in the JV game, Josh Fluellen had 13 and David Smith added 10.
Texas High's freshmen won, 73-50, with Caleb Arnold scoring 23 points and Rian Cellers 22. Gavon Smith added 10 for the home team. Devin Williams led Mount Pleasant with 20 points, Kebo Hines had 12 and Brock Cooper added 11.
Texas High travels to Greenville Friday.
Mount Pleasant 14 19 21 16 - 70
Texas High 19 11 9 26 - 65
MP (70): B. McGill 9 0-3 18, Himes 2 1-3 6, J. McGill-Spencer 4 1-3 9, Savage 7 1-2 17, Beard 1 0-0 2, Glinton 2 1-2 5, Cannon 6 1-4 13, TOTALS 31-59 5-18 70.
THS (65): Thurman 6 1-2 19, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Kelley 10 2-2 22, Wright 3 1-2 10, Drumm 2 2-2 6, Wilson 2 0-0 6, TOTALS 25 6-8 65.
3-point goals: MP-Savage 2, Himes; THS-Thurman 6, Wilson 2, Wright. Team fouls: Mount Pleasant 6, Texas High 16.