John Tyler Defeats Pine Tree in Leroy Romines Tournament

LONGVIEW -- James Mosley had to figure out what to do about J.J. Sparkman.

The Pine Tree forward was killing Mosley's John Tyler Lions in the paint. Mosley called a timeout after Sparkman started the second half with back-to-back baskets to trim the Lions' lead.

Sparkman was held scoreless after that as John Tyler went on to earn the victory, 60-37.

"We just tried to switch up our look," Mosley said. "They were killing us man-to-man, so we tried a zone press. Once we got him contained, it opened things up."

Pine Tree still hung on after the timeout, thanks to a couple of transition scores from Isaiah Lawson. Sparkman and Lawson combined to score 30 of Pine Tree's 37 points.

Daecorian Jessie led the Lions with 17 points, including a couple of first half 3-pointers. Javion Williams led the team in rebounds with seven while adding 15 points.

"(Jessie) is one of our senior leaders and captains," Mosley said. "He can shoot it pretty good. He's got a good midrange game and he definitely shot it well tonight."

The victory improved John Tyler to 7-7 this season. The Lions will face Henderson on Friday at 11:30 a.m. and Lufkin at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Pine Tree next faces Henderson at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Lufkin leaves no question against Henderson

LONGVIEW-- With each quarter, the lead grew more insurmountable.

When time ran out, Lufkin was looking at a dominant 69-44 victory against Henderson on Friday in the Leroy Romines Tournament.

JaCourtney Calvin and Natron Wortham couldn't be stopped in the paint. Even when shots weren't falling for the rest of the Panthers, those two were there to clean it up and get second chance points. Calvin led Lufkin with 16 points, while Wortham tied for second with nine.

"I definitely think we had the size advantage," coach J.T. McManus said. "We were trying to get the ball inside. We made a conscious effort to get it there and I think our guys did a good job of that. It's a lot easier when you can get points around the rim. In the second half, they tried to extend and press us and we got some points out of our press offense there."

Lufkin was no slouch on defensive either. The Panthers held Henderson to 44 points because they closed up passages to the lane. Henderson routinely settled for jump shots that turned into transition points for the Panthers.

"We try to eliminate paint touches," McManus said. "I thought our post defense struggled a bit, but we did a good job of trying to eliminate them penetrating and getting those paint touches."

Lufkin will play John Tyler at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The Panthers improved to 9-5 with the victory.