The Port Arthur Memorial Titans are James Gamble Classic champions for the third time in the last four years.

Memorial kept the first-place trophy in Port Arthur with a 68-63 victory Thursday over Lake Charles Washington-Marion.

The Titans (13-3) withstood a 7-0 run from the Indians to open the third quarter and also a sloppy first quarter to grab the victory.

“Anytime you can take someone’s best punch from the very beginning and come back, they don’t have much more than that,” Memorial coach Kenneth Coleman said. “This team showed some resilience tonight.”

It might only be a non-district tournament game but Coleman was impressed with his team’s win because Washington-Marion is a ranked team out of Louisiana.

“This game was huge for our confidence,” Coleman said. “Anytime you are building a program, at some point you are going to have to have some success. We needed this. I have been telling them this is our time.”

The Indians started off strong with a 16-10 lead after the first quarter. Cody Stansbury had three 3-pointers for Washington-Marion in the game’s first 8 minutes and finished with 14 points in the game.

Memorial stormed back in the second quarter with 25 points in the frame. Tournament MVP Darion Chatman and Thailan Wesley both started to get hot for the Titans. Chatman had 12 points in the second and eight.

“Defense was able to get some stops,” Chatman said. “… That is what got it. The stops. Coach Coleman told us at the break to play defense. That is what it took. It took guts.”

The significance of winning the tournament held at Memorial High School and in front of legendary coach James Gamble was not lost on Chatman.

“I do it for Port Arthur,” Chatman added. “I do it for my family and I do it for my school.”
The Indians were able to gain a little ground in the third after starting the quarter on a 7-0 run.

Memorial started the quarter off with several turnovers that gave Washington-Marion easy baskets.

The Indians outscored the Titans 19-16 in the third and led 52-51 heading into the fourth.

Memorial flipped the script on Washington-Marion in the fourth and outscored the visitors 17-11 in the game’s final eight minutes.

Wesley had seven of his game-high 24 points in the fourth and Bishop James did his job at the line in the frame. He was a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe in the fourth.

James finished with 14 points for Memorial.

“This is a good feeling,” Coleman said of the tournament championship. “Port Arthur needs a reason to smile, and basketball is real big in this community. That is one of the reasons why we put ‘Port Arthur’ on our chest. Our expectations should be Port Arthur’s expectations. We have had past champions, so we have set the bar high. The kids are starting to respond, and so is the community.”
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Gabriel Pruett: 721-2436. Twitter: @PaNewsGabe