The Mount Pleasant Tigers took a 56-45 win on the road Tuesday night as they had to fight from behind in a hostile Lobo Coliseum. With the win, the Tigers clinched their third district championship in the last four years, and fourth overall under head coach Joey Chism with two games remaining on the regular season schedule.

Mount Pleasant struck first securing the tip and scoring on a pretty feed from Carter Chism to a back door cutting Reggie Webster to stake a 2-0 lead. Longview would answer with an offensive putback on the other end to knot the score at 2-2 but the Tigers would get a driving layup by Payton Chism and another score inside from Kai Price to go up 6-2. Mount Pleasant would put together a few stops as Kelcey Morris scored on two straight possessions to put the Tigers up 10-2 as they looked like they might run away with the game early. But the Lobos would not back down generating an 8-0 run on a couple of three point makes to tie up the score at 10-10. The Tigers would put another score on the board, but Longview would score twice to close out the quarter up 14-12.

Longview would open the second quarter with a 6-0 spurt to put the Tigers in a hole at 20-12. The two teams would then trade buckets before Longview hit another three to increase their lead to 25-16 giving the Tigers their largest deficit of the season. With under a minute remaining in the quarter Webster would hit a free throw and Carter Chism would get a putback bucket to close the score with the Tigers trailing 25-19 at the half.

The Tigers would regroup after the break picking up their full court defensive intensity and scoring the first four points of the second half to bring the score to 25-23. Longview would once again respond maintaining pace and trying to keep their distance in front of the Tigers, but Mount Pleasant would be relentless in their pursuit finally tying the score at 29-29. This momentum would fuel the Tigers to a 14-3 run spurred on by two Carter Chism daggers from deep giving the Tigers the lead for good as Longview would never recover. Mount Pleasant would extend their lead to 42-35 heading into the final frame.

The fourth quarter displayed the Tigers ball control as Longview was forced to foul and navigate multiple players in foul trouble. Tensions and frustration would finally boil over as a Longview player fouled out and received a technical followed by the Longview coach being assessed a technical as well. The Tigers would shoot six straight free throws that all but sealed the game and push them to the double digit victory.

Payton Chism led all scorers with 18 points (6-14 FG, 6-9 FT) with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal. Kelcey Morris was hot on his heels with 16 points (5-10 FG, 6-6 FT) to go with 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals. Carter Chism was the hot hand behind the arc notching 13 points (5-9 FG, 3-6 3Pt) with 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. Reggie Webster added 5 points and Kai Price and Kyler Smith each had 2 points.

The 5 Tigers (31-0, 12-0) will travel to Marshall (14-20, 3-9) on Friday before returning home next Tuesday to face Tyler (20-8, 9-3) for the final home and regular season game. The playoff picture has not been set yet, but it looks like Mount Pleasant will matchup with either Huntsville or Porter in the first round.