Memorial and Hardin-Jefferson started a few minutes later than 7:30 p.m., but Tuesday’s game finished rather quickly.

Like, before 9 p.m.

Coming off a Silver bracket title in the Clear Creek ISD’s Carlisle-Krueger Classic, the Titans got 21 points from Steven Wilson and ended Hardin-Jefferson’s nine-game winning streak with a 77-43 victory in Port Arthur on Tuesday.

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Wilson, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, has been playing at a high level for someone who wasn’t a regular contributor on last season’s 5A state championship team.

“I just stepped up on defense,” Wilson said. “Coach [Kenneth] Coleman always preached defense, and he said that’s what I needed to do.”

Coleman, now at Humble Summer Creek, might be happy Wilson has raised his game on both sides of the ball.

First-year head coach Alden Lewis said the Titans (7-4) learned something from the Classic that they wanted to show Tuesday.

“That we can play with anybody,” Lewis said, his team already scoring a marquee win over two-time 4A champion Silsbee in a season after losing nine seniors. “It’s about gaining tempo. It’s about … I could say, gaining confidence and being able to play at a high level consistently and consecutively.”

Winners of four straight, the Titans are doing just that.

The Hawks (10-2), who won the Best of the Bay tournament title last weekend, were 3-0 against District 21-5A teams before Tuesday, having beaten Cleveland, Nederland and Vidor. They had also won each of their past seven games by 10 or more points, often putting those games out of reach early.

But Memorial stayed in championship form Tuesday.

The Titans began to put the game out of reach in the second quarter, continuing a string of 21 unanswered points. The Hawks led once, 10-9, before the Titans went on a 9-0 run. H-J never came within six points after that and made only two field goals in the second quarter, falling behind 53-21.

“We started applying pressure and that kind of separated us, which we wanted to do,” Lewis said. “We set the tone with the pressure defense.”

That margin quickly ballooned to 67-25 at the end of three quarters.

Kenneth Washington and Nate Clover each scored 11 points in the win.

Jaystan Davis led the Hawks with 11 points. Baxter Wirth and Demetrius Johnson each added 10.

Memorial will head to the Cypress-Fairbanks tournament and take on Arlington Bowie on Thursday. The Titans not be back at home until either Dec. 20 or 21 to open 21-5A play against Vidor.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews