MOORE — The Westmoore gym was filled to capacity Thursday when the Jaguars and Lions faced off for the first time this season. As the temperatures inside made the packed house feel like a steambath, the two teams matched the rising heat for three quarters.

However, it was Westmoore that was able to pull off the 58-42 victory and stay undefeated heading into the Christmas break. But it didn’t come easy.

“We’ve been off 15 days, stood around, played with no emotion, didn’t play with a sense of urgency,” Westmoore coach Robert Foreman said. “We just kind of ran up and down the floor and didn’t guard anybody. They outplayed us in the first half. They came out and fought hard. They took it to us.”

The Jaguars (4-0) trailed Moore 26-16 heading into the third quarter. The Lions (4-5) had been the aggressor and had outplayed Westmoore in the first half, including holding the Jags to four points in the second.

But in the third quarter it was Westmoore’s turn to get assertive. They racketed up their defense led by the backcourt combinations of DeJuan and Devonte Smith and Blake Owen. They pressured the Moore guards and forced them into turnovers.

“We got in at halftime and got into them a little bit,” Foreman said. “We came out in the second half played a lot better. We sped them up on pressure fullcourt man, force them into several turnovers.“

However, it was the play of Louis Marshall that put a stamp on the Jaguars’ defense. The 6-foot-9 senior had six blocked shots and contested every other that came near the rim.

“Our whole key was we wanted to force the ball up the sideline,” Foreman said. “Trying to trap run over the top and trap. We just want him to zone the basket in case they do break our trap. He is that safety valve. He had block several shots. We probably don’t win the game without him.”

While the Jaguars raised their level on both ends, the Lions did not play with the same confidence as in the first half. The shots that went down early fell short in the second half.

“We just didn’t go as strong as we did in the first half,” Moore’s Sam Bradford said. “We got comfortable with the lead. So we didn’t go as hard.”

In the fourth quarter, Westmoore outscored Moore 21-8 to blow the game away.

John Clark paced MHS with 15 points. Norwood posted 11 in the loss.

The Jaguars’ Matt Mobley led all scorers with 20 points. Devonte Smith added 13 and Tony Grisswell scored 8.

“We played pretty good coming up through the third quarter, leading into the fourth,” Mobley said. “It was a pretty bad first half. We played kind of selfish in first half. But once we got things moving, and started hitting shots, things started opening up for us. Let the game come to us rather than forcing things.”

Despite losing three straight games to start the season, it was Moore that set the tone of the game from the outset.

Jeff Criddell, Cody Bivens and Tyler Been were not afraid to get physical with any Jaguar that came into the paint. They made it uncomfortable for Westmoore.

However, when Mobley connected on a two-handed alley-oop dunk in the first quarter, it looked like the jaguars were about to get on track.

But that just seemed to inspire the Lions to increase the ferocity of the game. Technical fouls, mad scrambles for loose balls and in-your-face defense marked the rest of the first half.

“Rivalry game,” Mobley said. “Moore War is always going to be an intense game. You want to do your best and sometimes you end up doing too much. It was pretty intense in the first half.”