TIFTON – Tift County kept close to Florida’s Bartow High Friday, but the Blue Devils were unable to overcome the Yellow Jackets, dropping a 53-45 decision in the McDonald’s Invitational.

A night before beating Tift, Bartow won over Coffee, a team ranked No. 1 in Class AAAAAA by Score Atlanta.

Only briefly was the game ever a runaway.

A 10-0 run by Bartow started at the end of the third quarter and lasted three minutes of the fourth. That provided a 47-31 score. However, Tift never gave up its ship.

Eight seconds after Jordan Daughtry shot the deficit to 16 points, Marquavious Johnson stormed the lane. He missed a free throw after being fouled, but shortly after spun a pass to Tyree Marshall. Marshall hit from beyond the arc, then he, too, paid it forward, assisting McKenzie Jackson on a basket at 4:38.

Tift was down 47-38 and just getting started.

Marshall nailed a jumper and Jameson Turner stole a pass. Turner made both free throws after being fouled. Tift’s run became 12 straight points when Jatorion Warren made a single free throw at 1:36.

The Blue Devils stopped Bartow on the next possession, then received the ball out of bounds. However, the run was interruped by Joshua Simms’s basket at 0:53, expanding the lead to 49-43.

Tift went cold from the free throw line but did cut it back to four points on Ron Jackson’s basket on an inbounds pass with 16 seconds showing. Bartow, though, made enough free throws to last.

A cold first quarter meant the Devils never led and only tied once. Johnson got an old-fashioned three-point play three minutes into the opening canto. Tift couldn’t hit anything else and trailed 8-3 after eight minutes.

Warren made sure the cold spell was contained to that quarter.

He started the second quarter with a basket, two points of a big frame for him. Tyrone Smith and Daughtry hit back-to-back threes for Bartow, then Warren dunked on an offensive rebound; he scored seven points during the second.

Long shots kept falling for the Jackets. Martin Johnson and Alex Vigo also hit from behind the arc in the second before Smith made his second. Marquavious Johnson picked up steam in the period, scoring Tift’s last seven points. They trailed 25-19 at the break.

Martin Johnson and Vigo tallied a combined three three-pointers in the third. Marshall had one for Tift. His made for a 27-22 score, but when Johnson took a pass from Azaria Smith for two points with 35 seconds left in the quarter, the Devils trailed by six.

Johnson finished with 16 points for the Blue Devils. Marshall scored 11.