CRAWFORD — A team with twice as many losses as wins is bound to have shaky moments.
For much of the season, the East Oktibbeha County High School boys basketball team had too many to win consistently.
There”s no better time to get it together than the playoffs.
The Titans overcame a nine-point, third quarter deficit, nearly relinquished a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, and did just enough to beat Thomastown 70-65 Tuesday night in the opening round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1A South State tournament.
East Oktibbeha (10-18) will face Sebastopol a 4 p.m. Thursday at West Lincoln.
“Tough Game,” East Oktibbeha coach Barnett Robinson said. “Thomastown, they came to play. It”s to the point where all of the teams that are still here, (they) deserve to be here. We got in a relax mode and it almost cost us. We crunk it back up in the nick of time and finished the game.”
East Oktibbeha led Thomastown 65-56 with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining and could have closed the game from the free-throw line. But the Titans kept shooting at the pace that”d gotten them the lead, which gave the Bulldogs extra possessions.
Michael Huffman”s squad nearly pulled off a memorable comeback, once cutting the gap to two with less than a minute to play.
When the Titans slowed and played to the clock, they missed the front end of back-to-back trips to the line.
Leading 65-63 with less than 30 seconds to play, Titans guard Devonte Lucious came up with a steal in the paint, which led to the first of two trips to the line by Jamarious Hill, who closed the game with four free throws.
“Under two minutes, we usually go to our stall offense: Spread the floor, have one of the guards drive to the hole, make them foul (us),” Robinson said. “I don”t know what got away last night, but we can”t continue to play that way if we plan on going to Jackson.”
While the Titans stayed alive, Huffman”s squad played its final game as Thomastown High School. All of its returning players will have new teammates, a new coaching staff, and a new high school next school year when Thomastown and Carthage will consolidate.
“We”ve had a heavy load on us with the consolidation process,” Huffman said. “That kind of weighs heavy.”
East Oktibbeha got a monster night from senior guard Casey Neal (26 points, seven rebounds). He hit a trio of 3-pointers to lead an East Oktibbeha swing that turned a 44-41 deficit into a 49-44 advantage early in the fourth quarter.
“Casey, they basically follow his lead,” Robinson said. “He did a real good job tonight of getting us back in the game.”
Chris Hunter added 16 points and seven rebounds, and Lucious had 10 for the Titans.
Thomastown (12-14) received a dominating performance from 6-foot-5 center Marcus Henry (25 points, 16 rebounds). Without a player taller than 6-foot-2, the Titans struggled to keep Henry out of the lane and the result was half a dozen uncontested dunks.
In the second half, though, the Titans” double teams on Henry paid off and they forced other players to make baskets. The shots didn”t fall, and the Bulldogs didn”t take care of the basketball, finishing with 26 turnovers to East Oktibbeha”s 13.
“Our guards usually can shoot the ball better than we shot tonight,” Huffman said. “They did a very good adjustment at the end of the third quarter, (by) putting double teams.”
Tracy Wright had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs.
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