KIRBYVILLE – A late fourth quarter rally by the West Orange-Stark Mustangs came up short as the Diboll Lumberjacks claimed a 61-56 Class 4A Region III bidistrict playoff victory Tuesday night at Wildcat Gym.
The Lumberjacks held a 49-39 edge with 6:54 remaining but the Mustangs crawled all the way back to within two points at 58-56 with 0:11 remaining.
After the Lumberjacks turned the ball over, the Mustangs had a chance to tie it our win it with 5.82 seconds remaining but WO-S was called for an illegal screen and the Lumberjacks sealed it at the line.
Diboll guard Dominique Guy was a thorn in the side for the Mustangs throughout the night as he tallied a game-high 21 points with nice drives in the paint and he also nailed a pair of three-pointers.
Diboll also received 17 points and six rebounds from forward Chris Berry. Jarmarcus White had seven points and 11 boards for Diboll while freshman center Herb Gums contributed six points and 11 rebounds. Guard Nathan Garcia added eight points.
Guard Bretlin White led the Mustang arsenal with 17 points. Jay’len Mathews chimed in with 11 points and connected on three three-point bombs. Post Terron Brown tallied nine points and snared a game-high 14 rebounds.
The Lumberjacks built a 20-14 edge by the end of the first quarter as Guy poured in seven points while Berry and Garcia had five apiece.
Mathews had two treys for the Mustangs in the quarter.
The Mustangs battled back to tie it up at 31-31 at intermission.
White picked up six points in the period and Mathews hit another big trey. Berry scored seven for Diboll in the period.
The Lumberjacks went on a 17-8 tear in the third quarter as Guy penetrated for two big baskets and buried a trey while the Mustangs went cold.
It was the Lumberjacks, however, that went cold in the fourth as they almost let the Mustangs get away with a victory.
WO-S forced Diboll into eight turnovers in the fourth and the Lumberjacks shot a woeful 5-of-15 from the free-throw line in the period.
Brown scored five straight points for the Mustangs late, including a three-pointer at the top of the key with 0:11 remaining to pull WO-S to within 58-56.
The Lumberjacks finished with a 38-33 rebounding edge.
Diboll finished with 22 turnovers while the Mustangs had 18.
Both teams struggled from the charity stripe as WO-S managed to go just 5-of-13 while Diboll was only 9-of-24.