Anahuac turns up the heat in 52-46 victory
Quandre Coates of Anahuac goes up for two points against Hardin on Friday night.
Anahuac's Richard Smith goes around a Hardin player on Friday night in district play.
HARDIN- The Anahuac Panthers turned up the defense on Friday night and caused 27 turnovers that led to offense, which would be good enough for a 52-46 victory over the Hornets.
Early on, it was Christian Hernandez scoring while he was fouled for an 8-6 lead, then Richard Smith connected from downtown and the advantage was up to 13-6.
Hardin cut the deficit to 14-10 after a quarter of play.
The Panthers scored the first seven points in the second quarter as Jaxon Leath hit a three-pointer and then a Quandre Coates steal and score pushed the lead to 21-10.
Caleb Drake hit a turnaround jumper, grabbed an offensive rebound and scored for Hardin to cut the deficit to 25-16.
Anahuac answered with a Jason Nelson steal and bucket and then a Smith jumper gave the Panthers a 34-22 halftime lead.
Anahuac started the second half with a 14-6 run to push their advantage to 46-28 as Leath hit a three-pointer and Coates scored on the inside.
The offense sputtered in the final quarter for the Panthers as Ceasar Hernandez scored on a drive, and Coates made two free throws, which served as the only four points for Anahuac.
Hardin cut the deficit to five at one point, but that would be as close as the Hornets could get.
Coates led the Panthers in scoring with 13 points and Smith finished with nine. Hernandez and Leath each added eight points.
Anahuac will travel to Warren for a big game on Friday night.