PARAGOULD --- Following a tight loss in late January at Valley View, the Marion Patriots were 4-2 in conference play and had sole possession of third place in a competitive 5A East conference. But when the going got tough for the Pats, the tough got going. Marion refocused following that road loss, won its last eight conference games in succession, including last Friday night's 64-50 victory at Greene County Tech's Eagle Arena, and with Nettleton's victory over Valley View, the Patriots earned the outright 2025 5A East conference title and will be the No. 1 playoff seed in this week's Class 5A state basketball tournament. Marion (24-6 overall, 12-2 5A East) earned its second conference title in three seasons, and the eighth in school history, by making 47 percent of its shots from the floor and outrebounding Greene County Tech 38-18 last Friday night. Chandler Randle paced the Patriots with a game-high 20 points, Mikell Lewis scored 12, and Jalen Neal finished with 11 points. Greene County Tech got 15 points from Kason Scott, 11 from Parker Harris, and 10 from Landon Morton. Marion hit Tech with a 10-0 run after the Eagles scored the first three points of the game, and the Patriots led 19-10 after a quarter. MHS took its first double-digit lead of the night on the initial possession of the second stanza on a Dexter Higgins, Jr. layup, and the Patriots enjoyed a 36-21 lead at halftime. The second-half lead peaked at 21 points, but Tech outscored Marion 11-6 in the fourth quarter as Scott scored six points in the final frame. Marion earned its first boys basketball title in 1989, before earning crowns in 1992, 1993, and 1997 under longtime coach Melvin Brown. The Patriots finished 14-0 in 2004-2005 under first-year coach Irving Clay to earn that season's 5A East conference crown. MHS topped the 5A East again in 2018-2019 under another rookie head coach, this time David Clark, and the 2019 Patriots parlayed that crown into the Class 5A state title that March. Clark's Patriots won the 2023 5A East crown by winning their first 13 league games and marched into that season's state quarterfinals. First-year Marion head coach Sammie Lewis is the third first-year head coach to earn a conference title at the school, doing so this winter. WHAT'S NEXT? Outright 5A East conference champion Marion opens its run at the 2025 Class 5A state basketball tournament at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, against El Dorado at Greene County Tech's Eagle Arena. You can watch the El Dorado state tournament game for free on the MPAN YouTube channel, at MarionPatriots.com, or on the MPAN mobile app. 5A EAST RESULTS FROM 2-28 Marion 64, Greene Co. Tech 50 Nettleton 57, Valley View 53 W. Memphis 68, Paragould 62 Searcy 52, Batesville 50 FINAL 5A EAST BOYS STANDINGS MARION 12-2* Nettleton 11-3* Valley View 11-3* W. Memphis 8-5* Greene Co. Tech 7-7 Paragould 3-11 Searcy 2-12 Batesville 1-3 *clinched state tournament spot