Mills felt right at home Friday night at the Devil's Den in Jacksonville, but the Comets had to hold on late to leave with a victory.

Darious Hall scored 15 points and Cameron Ricks had 14 to lead the Comets past the Red Devils 58-47 in a 5A-Central Conference game.

The Comets (17-5, 10-2) are in second place in the 5A-Central while the Red Devils (18-7, 8-4) are third. Mills has two regular-season games left, against Little Rock Fair on Tuesday and a makeup game against Pulaski Academy on Thursday.

Comets Coach Raymond Cooper said his team settled down after trailing 7-0 early.

"We wanted to win each quarter by one point," Cooper said. "From the fourth quarter on, we just wanted to hold on."

Mills held Jacksonville to 16-of-40 shooting from the floor and limited the Red Devils to 22 points in the first three quarters.

Jacksonville pulled to within 52-38 with 3:24 left and Cooper called a timeout, making a point to tell the Comets about the Red Devils' ability to come back as they have done against other teams.

"They were scoring every time," Cooper said. "We were rushing like we were losing. I'm telling you, in this place, they can score 12 points in a minute. I've seen this happen before. So I said, 'Let's stop this now. Let's get this under control.'"

Mills could finally breathe a little after Hall's layup with 1:28 left that made it 58-44.

"It's hard to win here," Cooper said. "On a night like this where there's ice and snow, it's still packed. Luckily, we were able to get ahead and get the crowd of the game."

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