Mineola moved their District 13-3A record to 11-1 while dropping Quitman to 3-9 with a 60-42 victory at Delbert Ballard Memorial Gym Friday night. The Jackets won a coin flip with Chapel Hill to become the top seed for the district and will take on District 14-3A fourth-place team Hooks at Marshall Hallsville [update] Spring Hill in Longview on Monday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets will be sold online. Mineola finished the regular season with an 18-5 season slate while Quitman ended at 10-12.

Neither team could get much going early in the game. Andrew Stinchfield’s successful three-point shot got things started for Mineola with 5:55 left in the first quarter. That was followed by buckets from Jonah Fischer and Trevion Sneed to give the Jackets an early 7-0 edge. A pair of Brady Floyd free throws with 3:17 to go in the quarter were the first Bulldog points. Mineola came back with a basket by Conner Gibson making it 9-2. Quitman did not score a field goal in the first quarter, but Garin Kisinger made two charity tosses making it 9-4. Fischer, Sneed and Stinchfield finished off the first stanza scoring for Mineola and the Jackets had a 15-4 lead going into the second period.

The Jackets took a 10-point lead at the half. Down 30-10 in the second quarter, Quitman’s Jack Tannebaum hit a triple with just 1:48 left in the half, and a Ford Tannebaum bucket made it 30-15. Jack Tannebaum came back with a steal and score and then hit a long triple at the buzzer to cut the Mineola lead to 30-20.

The Bulldogs showed tenacity and toughness in the third quarter, once again led by the Tannebaum brothers as they closed the Jacket gap to 40-34 going into the final eight minutes. Ford Tannebaum made a four-point play, sinking a triple and adding a foul shot, and Jack Tannebaum added another three pointer as the quarter ended. A determined Mineola team had enough as big men Sneed and Dawson Pendergrass took over. Each hit for eight points in the final quarter and dominated play in the lane.

The Jackets scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to take a 51-34 cushion over the Bulldogs and opened up a 20 point lead at 59-39 on a basket by Fischer.

Quitman’s lone senior Aiden Corrior ended his four-year varsity career with a long three point shot at the buzzer as the game ended for the 60-42 Mineola win. Corrior ended the night with 13 points for Quitman while Brady Floyd had eight, Jack Tannebaum eight and Ford Tannebaum seven.