Only six days had passed since Memorial last played a basketball game.

The home win over Vidor, though, was the last time the Titans could even touch a basketball until Thursday, when the 26th James Gamble Classic tipped off. The UIL-imposed five-day “dead period” for all basketball teams gave the Titans a chance to catch their breaths before dominating Houston Kashmere 85-48 in the nightcap.

Steven Wilson, who had a game-high 14 points for the Titans, had no worries how the defending 5A state champions would come out.

“No worries at all,” he said. “We’re just ready. After Friday, we knew we had to step it up because it wasn’t our best, so we had to play harder.”

Memorial (12-6) defeated Vidor 72-62 last Friday, coming off a 56-54 loss at Barbers Hill.

Thirteen of the 15 Titans in the scorebook entered the scoring column. Jaden Conner had 12, Kenneth Lofton Jr. 11 and Kenneth Washington 10 for the Titans.

Memorial will take on Pro-Vision Academy at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinal round. Pro-Vision defeated Houston Austin 61-50 Thursday.

The winner of that semifinal will face either Houston Madison or Houston St. Pius X for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday. If the Titans defend the tournament title, they will have won three games in a span of about 26 hours.

“It’s nothing to us,” Wilson said. “We do this every day. If you love this game so much, you’d be willing to do it.”

The Titans, who are going for their fifth Gamble title in the past eight years (and eighth overall), never left Thursday’s game much in doubt, leading by as much as 68-25 in the third period. They were ahead 51-20 at halftime.

“We had our mind focused,” Wilson said.

This is the first Gamble Classic for Alden Lewis as the Titans’ head coach. He graduated from Memorial’s first senior class in 2003.

Kashmere (0-3) was led by David Wright with 13 points and Daniel Limbrick with 11. The Rams will take on Austin at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

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