Mark Twain overcomes early hole to move past Highland

"(I told them to) just keep doing the right thing on defense," said Tigers head coach Jared Akright. "They are not going to shoot 80% from the floor the whole game. That's what happened. They stared missing shots, we got the rebounds and got into our transition offense."

It was all Highland early on, with the Cougars racing out to a 9-2 start before Mark Twain head coach Jared Akright called a timeout to regroup.

"I said don't panic," Akright said. "They are going to make shots and they happened to make three or four in a row that were contested and good shots."

Highland continued its momentum and took a 16-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.

"I thought we were really ready for the game," said Cougars head coach David Devaney. "I thought the players played great during the first quarter. The enthusiasm, effort and the energy was great. Maybe that took a little out of us. We are at a disadvantage because other teams have more depth than we do."

Mark Twain picked up the pace during the second quarter with the help of six points each from Lakoda Preston and Sam Northcutt.

Cougars senior Devin Stutsman scored nine of Highland's 15 points during the second quarter.

"The last 10 games, Devin has played really great," Devaney said. "He's averaging around 20 points a game. Whatever's kick-started us has really helped us. We kind of follow what he does. He's the leader on the team and the kids respond to what he does. He's a pretty smart basketball player."

Tigers junior Aidan Dye drained a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half to tie the game up at 31-31 going into halftime.

"We sometimes become stagnant on offense and (Dye) was bringing energy, attacking the zone, bring the ball out and driving," Akright said. "That 3-pointer right before half was kind of an exclamation point on how he played in the first half. He brought really good energy off the bench for us."

Momentum continued in Mark Twain's direction in the second half, with the Tigers taking a 49-42 lead by the end of the third quarter.

Tigers senior Conner Eckler scored a team-high 17 points, sinking five 3-pointers.

"He's been struggling shooting the ball, but he had a good game today," Akright said. "It's a good time to find a rhythm at districts."

Mark Twain senior Lakoda Preston added 12 points, while fellow senior Josh Brothers racked up 11 points.

Stutsman led Highland in scoring with 17 points, while senior C.J. Eaton chipped in with 10 points.

Highland finishes the season with a 3-22 record. The Cougars will graduate five seniors -- Stutsman, Eaton, Curtis Miller, Seth Evans and Sterling Lair.

Devaney said he enjoyed returning back to coaching after six years of retirement.

"These kids will be special to me," Devaney said. "It was tough. We had a lot of kids that hadn't had much varsity experience and this was hard. The progress we made from the first day until today is very noticeable from when we first started. They were a great group of kids. Their attitudes were great. The effort was great."

Mark Twain (13-13) will face South Shelby (14-12) in the district semifinal at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

"I watched a couple of films on them and they are a pretty good ball club," Akright said. "They have a similar record to us. They beat a couple of common opponents, so it will be a pretty tough game."