WEST ORANGE — There was no doubt that the West Orange-Stark Mustangs had the Silsbee Tigers sweating for the longest time Tuesday night at Mustang Gym.

The Mustangs just trailed the defending Class 4A state champion Tigers by just four points at 68-64 with a little less than four minutes remaining.

However, Silsbee went on one of those “potent Tiger runs” down the stretch as Silsbee escaped with a 81-69 District 22-4A victory in front of a packed gym.

Mustang Jervondric Simmons buried a jumper to trim it to 68-64 with 3:42 remaining but the Tigers promptly went on a 10-0 spurt to snag a 78-64 with 1:48 left lead behind the efforts of Jordyn Adams, Braelon Bush , Kalon Barnes and Devon McCain.

Adams had a huge night for the Tigers (17-8, 4-0) as he poured in a game-high 28 points and buried three three-pointers.

Barnes and McCain each notched double-doubles for the Tigers with Barnes scoring 14 points and yanking down a game-high 14 rebounds while McCain chimed in with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Point guard Bush added 15 points, 11 coming in the second half.

The Tiger win offset brilliant performance from Mustangs Terron Brown and Simmons.

Brown powered the WO-S (11-11, 3-1) arsenal with a double-double of his own as he tallied 24 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Simmons, meanwhile, finished with 23 points and five rebounds and ripped three-three pointers.

Chris Martin added 10 points for the Tigers while Devontra Ranton had 10 points and seven boards for the Mustangs while Jarron Morris added eight points.

The Tigers led 60-51 at the end of the third and led most of the game but the Mustangs constantly clawed their way back in it before the big Silsbee run in the fourth.

The Tigers led 40-30 at intermission as Adams scored 19 first half points but the Mustangs fought back to get within 46-43 midway through the third after a Brown bucket. Brown had 11 of his points in the third stanza. However, barnes took over for the Tigers late in the third as he bruised his way inside for eight points as the Tigers closed the period with a 14-8 spurt.

Silsbee led 20-19 at the end of the first period as Adams buried a pair of treys and had 10 points.

The Tigers were able to increase their lead to 10 at the half by forcing the Mustangs into 11 of their 21 turnovers in the quarter.

Both teams finished with 37 rebounds.

Silsbee had 16 turnovers and was 8-of-13 from the free-throw line while the Mustangs shot just five free-throws, making all of them.

The Mustangs are now in a second-place tile with LC-M in the 22-4A standings and will visit the Bears Friday while the Tigers will play host to Bridge City.