By MAURICE SINGLETON/ Sports Writer

BAY ST. LOUIS — Suddenly, the Bay High boys basketball team has won five straight games.

Anthony Robinson sank a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left to give the Tigers the lead at 43-41over Long Beach in the Bay High Christmas tournament on Friday morning. Jaxon Meranto sank two free throws for the Tigers to close out the game’s scoring on their way to a 45-41 win over Long Beach.

The action came in the first game on the opening day of play in the annual Bay High Christmas Tournament here at the Tiger Dome on the Bay High campus.

The Tigers overcame an 11-0 start by the Bearcats to start the game and went on to a 9-2 run from that point to close out the quarter, trailing by only 4 points (13-9).

Robinson tied the game on a 3-point play as he was fouled on a made layup. He sank the free throw to tie the game at 17-17. The Tigers would get their first lead of the game following a Long Beach turnover on a 5-second call. Meranto would capitalize off the turnover to give the Tigers their first lead of the game at 20-17 with a 3-pointer with 1:22 remaining on the second quarter clock.

“To be honest with you, we looked very disinterested,” said Bay High coach Kelton Thompson. “Lot of tactical issues we got down by eleven nothing, but my whole attention was on our lack of interest. We’ve been like that all year. We’ve found a little success; we’ve won 8 of (last) nine. But sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. Our one loss was an overtime loss to Stanislaus.

“We’ve just got to become more consistent,” said Thompson. “We’re very capable, but when you only see it in spurts, it doesn’t have a chance to reflect on our success rate as much as it should.”

The Tigers would lead 21-19 at halftime. And the third quarter turned out to be the most even period of the game as Long Beach would outscore the Bay by one point, scoring 13 points in the period to the Bay’s 12 points.

Bay High opened the third quarter on a 5-point run started by a Meranto 3-pointer, followed by a Robinson layup in traffic to give the Tigers a 26-19 lead. They would go up by as many as 8 points in the period (30-22), but Long Beach would close out the period on a 10-3 run to close out the third quarter trailing by one point (33-32).

Bay High held the lead until just over three minutes remained in the game as Long Beach’s Andre Windham broke free in traffic in the half-court offense for a dunk to give the Bearcats the lead at 36-35. Nevah Smith scored on the Bearcats’ next possession to extend their lead to 38-35.

But the Tigers remained poised. On their next possession, Robinson got a good look from behind the arc, and he sank the 3-pointer to tie the game at 38-38.

Ben Alsaker scored on a 10-footer to regain the lead for the Bearcats (40-38).

Meranto and Robinson led the Tigers with 14 points each. Clark finished with 8 points. Long Beach was led by Windham with 24 points.

Bay High plays Christian Collegiate Academy at noon on Saturday, and Long Beach plays St. Patrick at 1:30 on Saturday.