When you come in as the No. 7 team in the nation, you always have a bullseye on your back.

Thursday was no different for White Station (Tenn.), ranked seventh by MaxPreps, as the Spartans were pushed in a physical contest by the Mount Vernon Knights of New York in a quarterfinal game of the Iolani Prep Classic.

Mt. Vernon, making it fifth appearance in the Classic, qualified for the game by virtue of a 75-37 win over Kaiser, while White Station, in their second appearance in the tournament, defeated Fuxin New Star (China), 61-46.

In a game that was expected to be one featuring speed and quickness, it turned out to be a physical one in the paint instead.

It started right off the bat as the game had to be stopped after blood was found over the right eye of Mt. Vernon's Judah Alexander with 2:59 in the first quarter and White Station up 9-7. Prior to the stoppage White Station's Ladarius Coleman had an emphatic one-hand dunk right down the lane.

The first quarter ended with the Spartans taking a 14-11 lead into the next period.

Mount Vernon rallied in the second quarter and built a lead as large as seven points, outscoring White Station 22-14 in the period. Alexander came back from his injury in the first quarter and had six of his 10 points in the quarter.

"We're going to try to pressure the ball (and) try to get it (the ball) inside," Mt. Vernon coach Bob Cimmino said.

Pressure the ball they did as they were able to force White Station into a few turnovers and beat the speedy Spartans inside with Alexander who finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals.

Mt. Vernon took a 31-28 lead into the halftime break.

The quarter after the intermission would belong to Coleman and the Spartans as 6-foot-6 center contributed more than half the points (9) in the quarter and finished with an impressive 17 points and 10 rebounds.

"When I saw I had an advantage I just told them to get me the ball and I took over," remarked Coleman, who is currently undecided on a college, but looking at a number of possibilities, including South Alabama and Jacksonville.

Mt. Vernon was held to just nine points in the quarter, but kept pace, finishing the third trailing just 45-40 heading to the final eight minutes of play.

In the fourth quarter the physicality continued, with 38 total fouls called in the contest, equating to both teams getting to the free-throw stripe consistently.

With the score tied at 46-all, White Station called upon their senior leadership to get them past the pesky Knights. Chris Chiozza, who is on his way to Florida next year, put up a right-handed layup after a beautiful crossover to break the tie at the 3:50 mark. He finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Down the stretch, the Knights had their chances, but were unable to hit any of their free-throw attempts, going 0-for-4 in the last 1:30, as White Station took home the win, 56-51.

"We learned that we're resilient, we have a lot of character, we're still competing and in a very physical game we beat a really good team." White Station head coached Jesus Patino said. "Defensively we were fine we let up a couple easy ones early, but we fixed that."

The Spartans buckled down on defense, only allowing 20 points in the second half, after allowing 20 in the second quarter alone.
 
"We need to get more fluent in our offense, I'd like to see us get better doing that in this tournament."

Patino and the Spartans will be right back at it at 6:30 p.m. in semifinal action against West Linn (Ore.), which defeated host Iolani 65-59.

Both semifinals will be streamed on ScoringLive.