LONGVIEW, Texas-Daingerfield had Arp chasing all night Tuesday. It never caught up.
Daingerfield built double-digit leads in each half, and while Arp cut the deficit to a point just before halftime it never got closer than three points after falling behind by 12 points 3:20 into the third quarter.
Daingerfield held on and pulled away in the final minute, scoring the final five points of a 63-54 Class 3A area victory at Spring Hill's Panther Gym.
Daingerfield (21-11) advances to the regional quarterfinals next week against Mount Pleasant Chapel Hill, a 65-49 winner over White Oak Tuesday.
Daingerfield finished 25 of 61 from the field for a 41 shooting percentage. The winning Tigers also held a 53-33 advantage in rebounding, while Daingerfield committed 19 turnovers and Arp had 18 turnovers.
"We feel like if we out-rebound teams, we've got a chance," Daingerfield coach Curtis Lewis said. "Rebounding and defense is the only way we're going to survive. It didn't feel like we had that big of an advantage (on the glass) during the game, but my kids played hard."
Arp shot 35 percent on 18 of 52 shooting. Arp had nearly twice as many free throw attempts as Daingerfield (35-18). Arp was 15 of 35 from the charity stripe, and Daingerfield converted 11 of 18 from the line.
Daingerfield didn't score for nearly three minutes in the middle of the fourth quarter, but Arp managed just one point during that period.
Daingerfield broke the drought when Keilyn McCain scored on a layup, and after Arp went 2 for 6 from the line, Keiston Bennett grabbed a defensive rebound and found McCain under the basket at the other end for an easy layup with 55 seconds remaining.
Timmyon Broner had a pair of free throws for Daingerfield with 25 seconds left, and then he stole the inbounds pass as was fouled. He converted the front end of a one-and-one for the last points.
"All year we've just been finding a way," Lewis said about the late surge. "We got a couple of kids in foul trouble, Tim (Broner) fouled out, and Mikal (Reeves) made some big contributions; we were glad to have him back tonight. I'm proud of them."
Daingerfield came out and grabbed the early momentum, taking a 4-0 lead and then using a 6-point rally to go up 12-5 on Reggie Jeter's 3-pointer with 3:47 left in the first quarter.
Jeter added a layup at 2:17 to make it 14-5, but Arp closed the first on an 8-2 run to cut its deficit to 16-13.
Just 2:02 into the second Daingerfield had built a 10-point lead, Tim Broner and Jeter each converting a traditional 3-point play during the 10-3 streak to make it 26-16.
Arp started chipping away at the lead and cut it to one (31-30) with a minute remaining until intermission. After Arp made a defensive stop, Timmyon Broner intercepted a pass in the paint, drove the length of the floor and was fouled while scoring.
He completed the 3-point play with 11.2 seconds left to give Daingerfield a 34-30 lead at halftime.
Jeter scored 19 points for Daingerfield, Tim Broner had 16 and Timmyon Broner 12. Mikal Reeves, who returned from injury, had nine points. Jay Johnson grabbed nine rebounds, Tim Broner had eight and Jeter and Bennett six each.
Jacoby Hawkins and Demarvion Overshown scored 17 points apiece for Arp. Overshown pulled down 20 rebounds.
#
Arp 13 17 14 10 - 54
Daingerfield 16 18 20 9 - 63
ARP (54): Medlock 2 1-5 5, Hawkins 7 2-3 17, Crawford 1 0-0 3, Brantley 1 3-7 6, Stewart 2 0-0 4, Stroupe 1 0-0 2, Overshown 4 9-20 17, TOTALS 18 15-35 54.
DAINGERFIELD (63): Reeves 4 1-2 9, Bryson 0 1-2 1, Jeter 8 1-1 19, Tim Broner 6 4-5 16, Timm. Broner 4 4-5 12, Johnson 1 0-0 2, McCain 2 0-2 4, Bennett 0 0-1 0, TOTALS 25 11-18 63.
3-point goals: ARP-Hawkins, Crawford, Brantley; DNG-Jeter 2. Team fouls: Arp 17, Daingerfield 29. Fouled out: Tim Broner.