Martin’s Mill’s Jak Kinder was the Bryan Mewbourn Invitational MVP.

BEN WHEELER — Martin’s Mill picked up a win over a Top 15 team for the fourth time during the week to win the Bryan Mewbourn Invitational on Saturday night inside O’Neal Weaver Gymnasium.

Facing Class 2A No. 6 Timpson, the No. 9 Mustangs pulled out a 33-29 victory in overtime. The win came a night after another overtime victory on Friday — 61-53 over Class 2A No. 4 New Home.

Martin’s Mill started the week with a 40-36 win against Class 2A No. 11 North Hopkins on Tuesday. The Mustangs opened their tournament with a 74-30 rout of Class 3A Redwater and then closed Thursday night with a 49-29 defeat of Class 2A No. 15 Beckville before the two overtime wins over two of the top six teams in Class 2A in the semifinals and championship.

“It started Tuesday against North Hopkins, golly what a week,” Martin’s Mill head basketball coach Greg Jenkins said. “I thought we were gritty all weekend. There are lots of times where we struggle on offense, especially when we get in a little bit of foul trouble, because a lot of our stuff goes through certain people. We’ve had some freshmen and sophomores grow up in this tournament. We thought at some point in this season it would happen, we just didn’t know when it was going to be.

“Point guard Travis Baber, we’ve had some injuries that kind of thrust him into the lineup, and we thought he was extremely strong with the basketball.”

Baber, a freshman, earned All-Tournament honors along with Martin’s Mill senior Alex Tyner.

“I think coming into the year, people were a little bit suspicious if we were legit or not,” Tyner said. “I think we’ve put people on notice with this tournament.”

Tyner led the Mustangs with 10 points and 11 rebounds on Saturday. Baber had 4 points and five rebounds.

Sophomore Jak Kinder was named the tournament’s MVP. He had 9 points in the championship game.

“They are a very tough team,” Kinder said. “They just came out of football, so they are very physical. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without our whole team here, and our coach pushes us in practice. This was a great win for us. Our end goal is to get to the state tournament and win that, so this is just a step toward our major goal.”

Timpson, which reached the Class 2A Division I state semifinals in football, just began its basketball season in this tournament on Thursday.

The Bears opened with a 56-34 win over Class 3A Commerce. On Friday, Timpson took a 42-41 victory over Class 4A Chapel Hill and a 45-42 win against Class 2A No. 1 Lipan before falling in overtime on Saturday.

“Give a lot of credit to Timpson,” Jenkins said. “They are right out of football. By the time they get through with district, they are going to be on the way to the regional tournament. They are a heck of an out. Coach Cloudy does about as good of a job as anybody around. They’ve got a heck of a culture they’re building.”

Cloudy received the All-Tournament Coach award.

“Not to take anything away from our kids,” Jenkins said. “I’m super proud of our kids. The word we’ve used the last couple of days is just grit. We just kind of go play great defense and go find a way to win.”

Martin’s Mill held Timpson scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the game with a 4-0 lead. Four-star Class of 2024 football player Terry Bussey scored all seven of Timpson’s first-quarter points, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer, to tie the score at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Bussey opened the second quarter with another three, and Timpson held Martin’s Mill scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter and 6:29 total. The Bears led 12-11 at halftime.

Martin’s Mill opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run and led 20-17 going into the fourth quarter.

With the Mustangs up 24-19, Timpson got a 3-pointer from Amare Bruton and a jumper by Bussey to tie the score at 24.

Isaac Jenkins and LT Washington traded buckets to tie the score at 26. Kinder made a free throw with 46 seconds left to put Martin’s Mill up 27-26. Washington was fouled after an offensive rebound with five seconds left and made the first free throw. Tyner rebounded the miss and got the ball to Blake Butcher, whose three missed at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

A quick layup by Tyner and a free throw from Baber gave the Mustangs a three-point lead. Bussey knocked down a jumper. Butcher missed a three on the offensive end but got back to take one of his multiple charges in the game, this one fouling out Bussey with 1:43 on the clock.

Isaac Jenkins made a layup with 1:06 on the clock, and a missed three by Jackson Campbell gave the ball back to the Mustangs, who got a free throw by Baber to put the score at 33-29 with 33 seconds left, and that held as the final.

Elliot Hilliard and Isaac Jenkins each had 4 points, and Butcher added 2 points for Martin’s Mill (13-3).

Bussey led Timpson (3-1) with 17 points and eight rebounds. Bruton had 6 points. Washington scored 4 points, and Bruton added 2 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

Bussey and Washington were both All-Tournament selections.

The third-place game featured Class 2A No. 1 Lipan and Class 2A No. 4 New Home.

It was a close game early with Lipan leading 15-10 at the end of the first quarter and 26-18 at halftime. But a 20-1 run in the final 6:26 of the third quarter allowed the Indians to pull away.

Tate Branson led Lipan (14-1) with 14 points and six assists. Tripp Phillips had 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Garrett Smith had 12 points.

Branson and Smith were All-Tournament selections.

Tre Evans led New Home with 13 points, six rebounds and three steals. Reagan Fiedler had 4 points in the game and was named to the All-Tournament team.