Mansfield Summit returns to state championship game with win over Lovejoy — PHOTOS
Mansfield Summit earned a chance to defend its Class 5A Division 2 state title.
The Jaguars, ranked 7th in the TABC Class 5A poll, dominated the second half and beat Lucas Lovejoy, 52-35, Tuesday night at Moody Coliseum.
Summit will carry a seven game winning streak into the Alamodome for the finals against Beaumont United at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“Going back means everything,” said senior guard Jaxon Sneed, who had a game-high 15 points. “I mean, people counted us out. People didn’t think we’d be going back this whole time. We believed in each other in our circle.”
The Jaguars (33-6) went from being a favorite to be back in San Antonio to being a question mark.
Mansfield Summit Coach Emund Pritchett said the program lost 7 players from last year’s team for various reasons, but some could’ve been back. Three of the four all-tournament picks were underclassmen. Only Javon Ross played for Summit this year of that group.
Of the 54 points the team scored in the finals, the returning players from the game — including Sam Getnet and Emund Pritchett II — tallied 11 points.
Pritchett said he wasn’t mad at the seven players that did what was best for them.
Those that remained developed a bond and the fans came out in droves to SMU’s home court.
“We’re about family; we’re about everybody eating,” Pritchett said. “We never know who’s going to be the star. You can be a star in your role, whatever that role is. If that role is on the bench, be a star there. So, all our kids are stars. I mean, they are stars every single day.”
The stars were plentiful in the win, though Sneed and Joseph Creal III did the heavy lifting with a combined 26 points.
Despite the 17-point margin on paper, the outcome was up for grabs at the break.
Summit led 26-24 over Lovejoy. The Leopards (29-9) fell behind 9-0 early, but outscored the Jaguars in the second quarter after outscoring them the final 5 minutes of the opening stanza.
Four different players scored for Summit in the third quarter. Buckets by David Bardere II and Pritchett II, off an offensive rebound, gave Summit a 36-30 lead going into the fourth.
Sneed and Parker Lambert of Lovejoy traded 3s to open the fourth.
The two-possession margin finally turned on an aggressive defensive play.
Sneed, a 6-foot-2 senior, stepped in front of a pass near mid court. He battled for the steal, then did a 360 spin and kept his foot in bounds. He took off with the Lovejoy defender behind him for an easy layup.
“That gave us a lot of momentum,” he said. “I just saw a run-through and I bit on it. I did it and worked it out to perfection.”
That became a turning point, as the Jaguars closed on an 11-2 run. Ross, Creal and Sebastian Pena also scored during the run.
Lovejoy didn’t have a field goal the final 7:08 of the game, getting a pair of free throws from Maddox Johnson with 5:06 to play.
Out of the five playoff games, the Jaguars have allowed 40 or fewer in four of those. The stingy defense has given up 20, 37, 46, 30 and now 35.
What was the key to that on Tuesday night?
Pritchett said effort.
“A lot of adjustments are doing what you need to do better and harder,” he said. “So that’s the first adjustment. You gotta do it better, and we got to do it harder and the kids did that. All it is … is hard work. Hard work every day.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 12:33 AM.