When Pleasant Grove gets a lead, it’s hard to catch them.

Gardendale found that out for the second time this season, as the Spartans broke out to a 10-point lead in the second quarter on their way to a 54-41 win Tuesday night.

The Rockets had chances to creep back into the game late, but couldn’t finish the deal.

“Every time we’d get close we’d get anxious and lose our patience,” Rockets coach Mark Cornelius said. “We had a couple of opportunities to get close in the fourth, but we couldn’t make our free throws.”

KD Gunnerson led the Rockets with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Zack Snow and Julius Shelton scored seven points each.

Orlando Coleman paced Pleasant Grove with 20 points, and Ricky Tarrant added 12 as the Spartans, ranked second in Class 5A, got their 24th straight victory.

The Spartans hit 51 percent from the field.

In other games:

Mortimer Jordan 81, American Christian 59: Blake Renshaw had 20 points, and Tyler Pelkey added 16 points plus nine rebounds and six steals as the Blue Devils ran past the Patriots for the second time in four days.

Cody Mann added 10 for Jordan.

The Devils also defeated ACA 85-60 on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. In that contest, Renshaw scored 24 points and Cody Mann had 20 as Jordan drew away from the Patriots’ faced-paced offensive game in the second half.

J.B. Pennington 53, Hayden 49: The Wildcats came within one point of getting their first win of the season, but Pennington hit three free throws in the last 22 seconds to deny the win Tuesday.

Troy Fines led Hayden with 13 points, and Seth Aderhold (moved up from the junior varsity) added 11.

Sumiton Christian 68, Fultondale 59 (OT): The Eagles stayed even the host Wildcats the whole way, but with big men Christian McCollough and Dre Talley fouled out, Sumiton took control in overtime.

Quantez McGary hit six 3-pointers on his way to a 21-point night that led the Wildcats, who hit 10 threes as a team. But Talley and McCollough were held to seven and six points, respectively.

Deundrea Marshall had 14 points with three treys.

St. Clair County 53, Mortimer Jordan 47: The teams stayed on largely even footing most of the way, but the Saints pulled away late.

Damien Lee led St. Clair with 16 points, Dee Franklin had 15 and Darius Crump 13.

Blake Renshaw paced the Blue Devils with 16 points, and Tyler Pelkey added 12.