The Whitehouse Wildcats could haven taken to the Delmar Fieldhouse floor a day ahead of their UIL 5A Region III semifinal against Port Arthur Memorial.

Instead, the Wildcats are enjoying one last bit of home-court advantage, so to speak.

“We chose to stay here and sleep in our beds, get our regular routine in,” fifth-year coach Brent Kelley said. “We’re eating breakfast in the same place where we eat breakfast, at First Baptist Church here in town, getting on the bus and making the long journey, about 4 hours on bus, and we’re going to try to do the best you can to get the kids ready to play.”

The UIL gave each regional semifinalist — Bryan and Fort Bend Elkins will play at 5 p.m. — an opportunity to practice at the Houston ISD facility Tuesday — but Memorial and Whitehouse both decided to stay home.

For Memorial, Delmar is just a hop-and-a-skip, as long as the Titans can beat the Friday traffic. Practicing there would have taken up valuable time that was spent Thursday at school, coach Kenneth Coleman said.

Kelley is anxious to see how the Wildcats (28-6) will respond to coming off a long journey from the Tyler area to Houston for Friday’s 7 p.m. battle, knowing the Titans (30-5) have already played a game in Delmar. That was just Tuesday night in a win over Humble.

And it’s a big concern to Kelley that the Titans know what it’s like to play in Delmar, which will host the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament next weekend.

“We have a lot of respect for them and being No. 4 in the state,” Kelley said. “We feel like we’re playing our best basketball at the right time. They’ve won 22 in a row.

“We’re on a roll, too. Someone has to lose tomorrow. Kind of unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.”

Whitehouse, which went 10-0 in District 17-5A and won 14 in a row, is unranked. Memorial went 14-0 in District 22-5A.

Five-foot-9 senior point guard Javier Neal paces the Wildcats averaging 17 points per game, but he’s averaged 22 in the UIL playoffs and is coming off scoring 26 in a 48-44 win over Pflugerville Connally. The Tyler Morning Telegraph named the fourth-year starter, a cornerback who will play football at North Texas in the fall, its basketball player of the year last season.

He could draw matchups against a number of Titans on defense, including their usual go-to scorer Thailan Wesley, Jamyus Jones and Darion Chatman. Wesley is averaging 25.3 points a game in the playoffs.

“We’ve got to do a good job of handling their pressure and taking care of the basketball,” Kelley said. “We’ve got to try to contain [Wesley] and find their shooters and not let them get open and contain everything and do a good job against their bigs.”

Jackson Mahomes, a 6-6 senior, is one of Whitehouse’s big men. His brother, current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, played on Kelley’s first team at Whitehouse before starring at Texas Tech.

Both teams are on the hunt for long-awaited state championships. Whitehouse is playing in its first regional semifinal since 2008 but has not won a state title since 1978 (2A) or been to the state rounds since 1979.

This is Memorial’s longest playoff run since its establishment in 2002, but no Port Arthur team has won it all since 1995 (Lincoln) or made the state semifinals since 2000 (Thomas Jefferson). Coleman delivered a fiery message to his team after Tuesday’s win after seeing tired looks on his players’ faces.

“A lot of times, whether it’s a basketball game or life in general, we don’t have enough gratitude or appreciation for how blessed we really are,” Coleman said. “I think we take things for granted. It was a gut feeling. It’s something that’s never been done at Memorial High School. … What we accomplished is the first time that’s ever been accomplished, and I don’t want that to be overlooked.”

•

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