The Aberdeen High School boys basketball team learned the valuable lesson of patience Friday afternoon in the Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Invitational.

Aberdeen took quite some time to adapt to the full-court pressure of Horn Lake. The Bulldogs eventually found their legs and battled to within one possession several times in the fourth quarter before suffering a 47-42 loss.

“You really have to look at the positives,” Aberdeen first-year coach Jaworski Rankin said. “We did not play well in the first quarter, but we came back and had the game right where we wanted it. We had a chance to take the lead three or four times and just couldn’t quite do it.

“There are some things to work on, but I loved the attitude and the competitive spirit. We showed a lot of fight when some things were going against us.”

Horn Lake (9-3) applied full-court pressure from the opening tip. The Eagles forced eight turnovers in the first three minutes and built a 15-2 lead.

“Defense is the main thing about our team,” Horn Lake senior forward Ladarius Mason said. “We have some long arms, so we try to get into the passing lanes and get some easy turnovers. We got some easy layups off the turnovers.

“Defense is really the main thing for us. We can score some, but we like to have a fast start on defense when we can.”

Aberdeen (6-2) also worked through foul difficulty. Senior guard Marcus Carouthers (game-high 21 points) had eight points in the first quarter. However, he drew his second foul right after helping Aberdeen cut the deficit to 17-10.

“Marcus having foul issues really hurt us,” Rankin said, “especially when you are down so quickly, so most of the game is an uphill battle. We had to do some other things on offense in the second quarter since he had to sit some. There were some stretches where we weren’t good offensively.

“But it is also good to have a stretch where you have to play without him so the other guys don’t have to depend on him as much. It’s really a testament to the kids that we got back in it against a team with good size and athleticism like that.”

Horn Lake led 32-20 lead early in the third quarter when Carouthers re-entered the game. With the help of Jarvis Eckford, Carouthers gave the Bulldogs a chance. He hit two 3-pointers and Eckford had two putbacks in the lane to cut Horn Lake’s lead to 35-31 at the end of the third quarter.

Aberdeen closed to within two points on a basket in the lane from Queshod Young, who was fouled on the play but missed the free throw. Aberdeen then saw its next two offensive possessions end in offensive foul calls trailing by a bucket.

“Our defensive effort was supreme when it needed to be,” Horn Lake coach Tori Harris said. “We are definitely a momentum team. We just have to learn how to have longer stretches of success. Fortunately, our man-to-man defense is really good. We made some really big stops there in the fourth quarter when Aberdeen had all of the momentum.”

A steal and layup by Mason proved critical as Horn Lake eased out to a six-point advantage. The Eagles hit enough free throws the rest of the way to seal the deal.

Carlos Thomas and Mason each had 10 points for Horn Lake. Mason also had a game-high 12 rebounds.

“We learned a lot from this game,” Rankin said. “We have played Tupelo and Horn Lake, and both of those are good 6A schools. We have played some 5A competition, too. These games will make us better for our district competition. I like this team a lot. We will be ready to take it up a notch when the district games begin.”

Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott

Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.