The Madisonville men’s basketball team concluded non-district play on a high note Friday with a 62-44 victory over Navasota at MHS in a strong defensive showing. The Mustangs hosted Robinson in their district opener Tuesday.

“I was really impressed with our defensive effort,” said head coach Brad Taylor after Friday’s win over Navasota. “That is one of the things we talked about going into the game: come out being aggressive and under control. Our guys played real hard in the first half and continued into the second half, we just kept applying pressure to them.”

The Mustangs trailed 13-11 at the end of the first quarter but then held Navasota to 11 points in the second to build a slim lead before the break. Rodney Brooks helped put the Mustangs on top and establish momentum with a late bucket in the second quarter while being fouled.

“Offensively, we just took our time and took the shots that we wanted,” said Taylor. “Our mindset was to try and attack the basket and get their guys into foul trouble early and that is what we did.”

Brooks was second in scoring for the Mustangs Friday with 17 points behind Jeramiah Burns, who tallied 18 to compliment eight rebounds.

Madisonville began to pull away at the end of the third quarter and started the fourth with a pair of quick buckets to establish a double-digit lead and force a Navasota timeout. They would gradually pull away and stifle any chance of a late Rattler comeback on the defensive side.

“It just gives us confidence,” said Taylor. “We got a bunch of young guys and the more confidence they get, I think, the better it is going to be for us in district. We just need to continue working on the little things and everything else will take care of itself.”

Xzavier Whaley, Wayne Roundtree and Ronaldo Willis all added six points to the team’s total in the victory. Willis was also second on the team in rebounds with seven.

The Navasota matchup was the team’s lone game of the week before opening district play against Robinson at MHS Tuesday. The Mustangs will travel to China Spring Friday for their first road district bout.

“We want to win this district,” said Taylor Sunday. “We got a tough task ahead of us but the mindset going into district is to win each week. Our mentality is to go 2-0 and make sure we come out here and do everything necessary.”

Robinson concluded their non-district slate by winning seven of their last nine matchups, including victories over Whitney, McGregor, Meyer and Gatesville.

China Spring enters district play with a mark of 8-7.

“If we go out there and execute our game plan and play our style of basketball, I think we’ll have a good chance to go 2-0 on the week,” said Taylor.

The Mustangs will battle each of their five district opponents twice, once at home and once on the road. After China Spring, they will meet Connally, Mexia and La Vega to conclude the first round of league play.