As soon as both teams entered the gym, it was obvious that Sulphur Springs was not going to be an easy match for the Tigers. Senior Damian Willis started the game off with a bang, hitting a three point shot to put the first points on the board for the Tigers. Followed by junior Jaylen Rhone tacking on his first 4 points of the game. At the end of the first quarter, the Tigers had the lead, 12-11.

As the second quarter began, the Tigers started to cushion their lead again by going on a 9-2 run and playing solid defense. Rhone got two steals which added on to the defensive effort and went into halftime with a 27-19 advantage.

After the start of the second half, the tables began to turn and the momentum slid towards Sulphur Springs. Sulphur Springs pushed a 6-0 run which turned into a 13-2 run quickly. Although the Wildcats went on an impressive run, the Tigers scored enough to keep a 40-38 lead.

At the beginning of the fourth, the lead bounced back and forth, but ultimately Sulphur Springs prevailed  with the heart breaking win, defeating the Tigers. At the 5:03 mark, Texas High didn’t score a basket. To seal the deal, with less than 30 seconds left and Texas High in possession, the Tigers turned the ball over and the Wildcats scored a layup on a fast break to give them a 4 point lead and a 53-49 victory over the Tigers.

“I think the main reason is because we didn’t start out good,” sophomore Stephen Austin said.  “We didn’t have that much of a high intensity and we could’ve come out way harder.”

Although the Tigers did lose, there were some positives to the game. Rhone scored 15 points, had 2 steals and got in the basketball’s path multiple times getting 4 deflections while Janiro Lane contributed off the bench and helped in the effort to keep the lead scoring the final 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.