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A down-to-the-wire District 1-4A battle turned into a comfortable finish as Morristown West closed on a 13-0 run to beat West Ridge 66-49 on Monday night.

After West Ridge’s Grant Thompson drilled four 3-pointers to open the fourth quarter, the Trojans’ lead shrank to just four points with 3:33 remaining after West had led by as many as 13 in the third.

West responded by seeing five different Trojans score during the decisive closing stretch, pulling away for the 17-point victory.

The Trojans (16-9, 5-1 District 1-4A) swept the regular season series with the Wolves and kept hopes alive to compete for a district title pending Tuesday’s matchup with Dobyns-Bennett.

“They’re a good shooting basketball team, and they shoot the ball really well. We really tried to focus on No. 11 (Will Holmes), and then they had No. 4 (Thompson) come up, which we knew he could shoot. That wasn’t surprising, but he knocked down some big shots tonight, and he did a good job. And so it was good to be able to get a sweep over them.

“It was good to just put ourselves in a chance to have an opportunity for a big basketball game tomorrow night.”

Thompson paced all scorers with 29.

Despite some late slip-ups, Dobyns said he was pleased to see his team close out a win late in the season, especially following an inconsistent two-week stretch caused by weather disruptions.

“Finally got back into school today, trying to get back into a normal schedule of some sort,” he said. “The boys really did a good job finding their focus there and just finding a way to get the job done, which was the most important thing, especially this time of year. Every game is going to be tough. District games are coming, and the tournament is coming. At this point, it’s just find a way somehow. And that’s basically what we did tonight. I thought down the stretch in the fourth quarter, we did a good job taking care of the ball. They were trapping, pressing and trying to turn us over, and I thought we did a really good job taking care of it, which was good to see. I was proud of them for that, and that’s how we were able to kind of pull away there at the end.”

Junior forward Jamere Williams turned in another impressive outing, finishing with 19 on the night, including an electric alley-oop finish off a pass from Jake Bunch. Williams has solidified himself as a consistent scoring option in the back half of the season.

Senior guard Julian Sexton matched Williams’ total with 19 of his own.

“Jamere was very consistent tonight,” Dobyns said. “He did a good job around the rim, scoring the basketball. Julian hit some big shots for us down there in the second half. He shot the ball the last couple of games really well. So it was really good to see those guys step up and do some good things for us.”

Outside of those two, West found contributors across the board as every Trojan to touch the floor found the bottom of the net, with Will DesGroseilliers putting in 11 as the third double-digit scorer for West. Jake Bunch also added seven.

“We try to talk about that, and it doesn’t matter whose night it is,” Dobyns said. “It’s just whoever it is, we’ve got to pull for them and be happy for whoever’s night it is. It could be somebody different every night, and that’s okay. We want to make sure we’re excited and happy for them, and just make sure that when our numbers are called, we’re ready to get the job done.”

The Trojans opened on a 7-0 run with lays from Bunch and Williams, followed by a Sexton three.

West Ridge responded with a 10-2 run to take its first lead of the night before West closed the first quarter up 14-11.

West again began to build a 20-13 lead to open the second thanks to Williams alley-oop slam. But again, West Ridge clawed back within one and tied it at 28 to end the quarter.

DesGroseillliers scored back-to-back buckets to start the third, and West extended the run to 17-4 thanks to eight points from Sexton and a three from Andy Fowler for a 45-32 lead.

The Trojans closed the quarter up 45-36, but Thompson caught fire to open the fourth, scoring nine in a minute and a half to shrink it to 48-45.

West responded with a Sexton three and a bucket from Williams before another Thompson triple got it back to 53-49 with 3:33 on the clock.

That was the last time the Wolves would find the net as Williams put in two, and Julian Sexton hit his fourth three to spark a 13-0 Trojan run to end the game.

Anderson Noe, DesGroseilliers and Bunch also scored in the deciding run.

West hosted D-B on Tuesday, and hosts Sevier County on Thursday before a final district bout at East on Friday.

The Trojans took an uncharacteristic blowout-loss in Kingsport last time the two teams faced and hoped for a better showing on Tuesday with district standings in the balance.

“We were up at their place at D-B, and they shot the ball lights out,” Dobyns said. “They did a great job, and they gave it to us. We’ve had to kind of live with that. And so now we have an opportunity. We’ve been able to take care of business and our other games leading back up to this one, which was huge to be able to try to find the focus to be able to do that… But now tomorrow night’s gonna be a big game for us. That’s our conference loss at this point, and they really took it to us up there, so we’ve got to find a way to dig down and return the favor tomorrow.”