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Jungle Brawl: Lions fall to district-leading Panthers
By Richard C. White, rwhite@starlocalnews.com
Despite a strong opening effort Friday night, McKinney couldn't keep up with district-leading Plano East's second-half surge, resulting in an 82-53 Panthers' victory.
"This was one game," said Wes Watson, McKinney head coach. "It didn't matter if we lost by 29 or one, it's still one in the loss column. We didn't help our own cause tonight because we didn't cash in on opportunities we had around the basket and we didn't block out very well on the defensive end."
The Lions now finds themselves at 1-4 in 10-5A while the No. 4 state-ranked Panthers remain perfect at 5-0.
Senior Jonathan Shannon led McKinney with a game-high 26 points. Senior Raynell Denny also had a strong game, contributing 11 for the Lions.
The Panthers had three players in double digits Friday, led by senior Patrick Birt's 17 and followed up by 15 from senior Jarvis Pugh and 11 from senior Marcus Mathieu.
The two squads were in near-perfect symmetry for much of the opening frame, trading baskets and occasional mistakes in equal measure.
"Our pressure was pretty good," Watson said. "We had the pace the way we liked it and we were knocking down some shots."
At the end of the first quarter, Shannon sank consecutive 3-pointers in the span of 10 seconds to give the Lions the 18-15 edge.
"We had some moments where we didn't play well," Clarkson said. "Shannon was making a lot of threes and we were kind of letting him have those shots and he kept making them. He did a great job scoring for them."
The Panthers were hot to start the second, building up a 25-18 advantage before Shannon sank another three, cutting it to 25-21. Not to be outdone, the Panthers came roaring back to take a 33-23 lead. The run included a fast break dunk from junior Trey Patterson late in the second, forcing McKinney to call a timeout in an effort to stump East's sudden surge. The Panthers took a 36-29 edge into the half.
East gained some separation in the third, building up a 44-31 advantage midway through the quarter, the momentum of which again forced a McKinney timeout.
"The difference was we finished a lot of the breaks we got," Clarkson said. "And we rebounded the ball well on their end and we limited them to one shot."
Moments later Pugh joined Patterson with his own dunk, as Pugh's also came on a fast break. After the dust had settled, East found itself with a 21-point lead. With a large advantage, East began to play faster than even it could handle, resulting in several missed shots and poor passes during wide-open fast breaks, resulting in Clarkson signaling to his players to take their time.
The Lions took this opportunity to decrease the deficit by six, but it wouldn't last as the Panthers led, 57-38, heading into the final frame.
"We just never really recovered," Watson said. "They're a very good team and it snowballed."
Just as they had decent runs in the third, so too would the Lions shine at moments in the fourth. However, the Panthers' large lead proved too much of a deficit to overcome as East cruised to the 82-53 victory.
Up next for McKinney is a Tuesday home game against Plano West while East hosts Plano Senior. Both games are at 7:30 p.m.
"There are so many things that are correctable," Watson said. "We're going to regroup and get ready for the second half of district. I'm very optimistic about what we have going forward."
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