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Early setbacks: North boys can't overcome first-quarter deficit, fall to Lovejoy
BY Richard C. White, rwhite@starlocalnews.com
LUCAS -- Despite several moments of strong play, an 11-point first quarter deficit proved too much for the McKinney North boys to overcome as the Bulldogs fell to Lovejoy, 65-57, Tuesday night in both team's 13-4A opener.
"It was a bad first quarter and a bad first half," said Darryll Craft, North head coach. "The first quarter was horrible. We got better in the second half, we got better throughout the game. I'm proud of the effort, but disappointed in the execution."
Four different North players reached double digits in the loss. Julion Pearre had a game-high 16 points, followed by Colin Curran's 15, Bryson Brown's 13 and Jola Otubu's 11.
Lovejoy was able to dictate the tempo by not allowing the usually fast-paced North squad to run up and down the court.
"We looked at the scouting report and checked off the things we needed to do, which we executed tonight," said Kyle Herrema, Lovejoy head coach. "Our kids took the game plan and did a wonderful job controlling the temp."
Lovejoy (8-8) leapt out to a quick 8-2 lead.
North (8-7) gradually cut it to 10-8 before Lovejoy went on a 9-0 run to finish the first up, 19-8. Lovejoy spread the wealth around early as five different Leopards scored in the opening frame.
"In the first half especially we got some great driving opportunities," Herrema said. "We ran the ball really well and got the ball inside, so we ran some motion, got some movement and created some isolations in the post, which gave us some good looks inside."
Senior Elias Olvera had a team-high 15 points, followed by 14 from senior Chris Ford and nine from senior Trevor Eckard.
"Elias did an awesome job controlling tempo tonight," Herrema said. "And Chris did an incredible job inside; he took his time in the post and got some people up and Trevor did a great job on the glass, too."
Both defenses would hold the other to only one basket through the first half of the second quarter.
Things quickly changed in the remaining four minutes.
Trailing 27-12, North scored six points in a flurry in the final minute as Curran banked a layup, followed by a corner shot from the edge of the paint by Pearre and a no-look twisting layup from Brown. The Leopards, though, added a shot of their own for the 29-18 halftime lead.
North came out stronger in the second half.
A tight battle ensued as North matched Lovejoy point for point for most of the third as the game's next 24 points were evenly distributed.
While North prevented Lovejoy from gaining any ground, the Bulldogs failed to make up any ground until the very end of the quarter as the Leopards led 43-33 heading into the final frame.
The start of the quarter proved beneficial to the persistent Bulldogs as they pulled within six when Curran buried a 3-pointer.
"They got hot at the end with some threes," Herrema said. "They're an unbelievable three-point shooting team, so we know what they're capable of. We just had to make it tough for them on every single shot."
North cut it to 55-50 on a free throw from Brown in the final two minutes, but got no closer as Lovejoy claimed the 65-57 district win.
"The difference was the first quarter," Craft said. "Especially against a great, fundamentally sound team like Lovejoy that's not going to let you back in it. We needed to claw and scrap and I think we did that, but this was the third or fourth game that we've gotten behind in the first quarter and had to fight and fight. You can't do that against good teams."
North returns home to host Wylie at 8 p.m. Friday while Lovejoy is on the road against Denison at the same time.
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