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Ri-Dunk-Culous: Turnovers, transition baskets pace East win over West
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
There was still eight minutes to go, but the Plano West boys (2-1 in district) walked off the court looking defeated at the end of the third quarter.
Back-to-back turnovers leading to dunks at the other end can do that.
Plano East (3-0) was the beneficiary of that turn of events as the No. 4 team in the state expanded a 41-33 lead to 45-33 in a matter of seconds on its way to a 64-55 victory.
The jam-packed gym could attest to the latter and it was the East fans that were sent into a frenzy at the end of the third.
West, which trailed at the half, 31-23, moved to within 38-33 as sophomores DJ Hogg and Soso Jamabo made their first consistent runs into the paint. But the Wolves got no closer the remainder of the game, thanks in large part to a quarter-closing sequence in which an East steal led to a Pugh dunk and then another Panthers steal ended with a dunk from junior Zach Smith.
"That 1-3-1 zone has been good to us," said Jeff Clarkson, East head coach. "We sort of moved into that spur of the moment, worked the zone trap and the guys did a really good job executing it."
"We had that 25-second spurt there where everything went haywire," added Anthony Morgan, West head coach.
The surge gave East a 45-33 heading into the final frame.
"[The dunks were] big to get the momentum going for us," said Pugh, who had 11 points and eight rebounds. "It got the fans into the game and when they get loud, we get more fired up."
The 7-0 East run wasn't an anomaly as the Panthers scored the last five points of the first for a 15-14 edge and last seven of the second for a 31-23 lead.
"I think that's the difference between a team of seniors and a team of largely underclassmen," Morgan said. "We've still got stuff to work on, but we got some good experience tonight."
East's run eventually reached 11 points before being broken by Tre Anderson. The West junior was a force in the fourth, ending the game with a team-high 17 points that was matched by Jamabo.
"Tre is someone that plays good D and can hit big shots," Morgan said. "We were looking for some growth from him this season and he has stepped up quite a bit."
West had trouble finding much offense outside of Anderson, Jamabo and Hogg, who accounted for 11 points and five boards, as their transition game was stymied due to the fact East turned the ball over just three times in the final 16 minutes.
"We settled down in the second half," Clarkson said. "That was really important because West is so good in transition and so many of their first-half baskets came off that."
When the Wolves did penetrate into the paint, Smith was often there with a block.
"That's huge right there," Clarkson said. "Because if you have a breakdown, you know we have someone there to bail you out."
East had no such trouble with scoring variety.
In addition to Pugh, seniors Marcus Mathieu (17 points), Sawyer Kipp (13 points) and junior Trey Patterson (11 points) all surpassed double figures. Seniors Jacob Morales and Patrick Birt scored five apiece with the latter adding five rebounds. That was only the third-best board total on the team though as Kipp led all players with 10 rebounds and East held a 35-21 advantage.
"We always talk about blocking out," Morgan said. "I think some of younger kids saw tonight why that is."
Mathieu hit all six of his free throws in the final 1:23 to secure East's 64-55 victory.
"Every game is going to be a battle in this district and I think our game against Plano (Senior) sort of woke us up to that point," Clarkson said. "So, this was a big win, but now we have to gear up for Allen because they are going to be tough too."
East in on the road versus Allen at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday while West hosts McKinney Boyd at the same time.
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