Cayuga's Preston Anderson prevents the steal from Yantis' Jesus Sandoval during their Class 1A Division I regional quarterfinal Tuesday night at Wagstaff Gym. (Herb Nygren Jr. | Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The Cayuga Wildcats shook off a slow start to defeat Yantis 62-42 in a Class 1A Region III quarterfinal matchup at Tyler Junior College’s Wagstaff Gymnasium Tuesday.

Cayuga (34-4) will now play the Tenaha at 3 p.m. Friday in the regional semifinals at TJC in a rematch of last year’s regional semifinal that Tenaha came back from a 26-point deficit to win and beat Clarksville in the final to advance to the state tournament. 

Yantis (22-11) got off to a quick start, running out to a 10-2 advantage with 3:44 left in the first period thanks to Mark Carrasco’s and Christian Lewis’ 3-pointers.

No. 3-ranked Cayuga had had enough as the Wildcats went on a five minute spurt outscoring Yantis 19-2 for a 21-12 lead with 6:08 left before halftime. 

During the spurt Preston Anderson scored seven points, Chris Hardy added four points and Hunter Jenkins connected on two of his 3-pointers on the evening.

The Owls composed themselves and finished the opening half strong by scoring seven of the last nine points to cut the deficit to six, 27-21, at intermission.

The Wildcats put the game away starting at the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter, as Anderson scored two buckets and Daniel Walls hit a trey to push the advantage to 48-34.

Yantis’ Ty Davis tried to keep his team in the contest by scoring 11 points in the final period, but Cayuga’s athleticism finally won out as the Wildcats scored the final eight points of the contest. 

Anderson led Cayuga in scoring with 17 points and four dunks and Hardy’s steady performance added 10 points.

Davis scored a game high 24 points on five 3-pointers and Jesus Sandoval contributed eight points for the Owls.

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Class 1A Division I Region III Regional Quarterfinal

At Wagstaff Gymnasium

Cayuga 62, Yantis 42

Cayuga   13   14   13   22 —62

Yantis     12     9   10   11 —42

CAYUGA — Hunter Jenkins, 9; Daniels, 3; Keshawn Jackson, 2; Deon Shofner, 6; Preston Anderson, 17; Chris Hardy, 10; D’Onte Jackson, 7; Zac Bowman, 8.

YANTIS — Jesus Sandoval, 8; Christian Lewis, 3; Michael Carrasco, 4; Ty Davis, 24; Mark Carrasco, 3.

THREE POINT GOALS — C: Walls, Anderson, Jenkins (3). Y: Lewis, Ma. Carrasco, Davis (5).

NEXT UP — Cayuga vs. Tenaha, 3 p.m. Friday in the regional semifinals at Tyler Junior College’s Wagstaff Gymnasium.