By Todd Wills
Corsicana Daily Sun
WHITEHOUSE —
The Tigers had the good feelings going and a sudden opening in front of them after a 3-point barrage had them in the game in Whitehouse on Friday night.
Unfortunately that momentum fell flat in the last six minutes of a 79-57 loss to Whitehouse in the District 16-4A opener.
Corsicana, which rolled into Whitehouse with an 18-4 non-district record, will have to regroup with a tough two-game homestand coming up Tuesday and Friday at Tiger Gym against Jacksonville and John Tyler.
Mike Lewis nailed one of his six 3-pointers to cut Whitehouse’s lead to 62-55 with six minutes left — the Tigers had trailed by as much as 17 points. And Corsicana had the ball with a chance to put another dent in the Wildcats’ lead.
But Danair Martin didn’t get a call on a layup he couldn’t convert, and Whitehouse responded with a 3-point play as the Wildcats closed out the game on a 17-2 run.
“We made some shots to obviously get back in the game a little bit,” Tigers coach Don Newton said. “I want people to think at least they play hard. They don’t give up. I don’t know if we accomplished that tonight.”
The Tigers hung around in the first half, but couldn’t close out either quarter as Whitehouse built a 36-25 lead behind 17 first-half points from Patrick Mahomes, who received a scholarship offer as a quarterback from Texas Tech earlier in the day (he has baseball offers from Arkansas and Arizona).
Corsicana battled Whitehouse to a draw in the third quarter as Lewis made two 3s and Tim Lang, Tedrick Wilson and Dzifa Mallet all made treys.
But the Tigers went cold in the fourth quarter and also missed four free throws.
Lewis had 24 points while Mallet added 16. Mahomes finished with 20 points. Guard Jake Parker had 24 points to lead the Wildcats.
Whitehouse 79, Corsicana 57
Corsicana 12 13 21 11 — 57
Whitehouse 16 20 21 22 — 79
Corsicana — Mike Lewis 24, Dzifa Mallet 16, Alonzo Gipson 7, Tim Lang 4, Tedrick WIlson 3, Ernest McGhee 2, Lathan Carter 1.
Whitehouse — Jake Parker 24, Patrick Mahomes 20, Spencer Shaw 14, Ryan Cheatham 7, Jaylon Dews 7, Chris Kunzman 5, Ty Stickley 2.
Records — Corsicana 19-5, 0-1 in 16-4A; Whitehouse 17-5, 1-0.
