LEAGUE CITY — The Clear Creek High School boys basketball team may be without one of Galveston County’s top players, but that didn’t keep the Wildcats from winning two games on Thursday.
Playing without TCU signee Logan Lancon, Clear Creek defeated Sugar Land Clements and Austin Reagan to advance to the gold bracket of the 75th annual Clear Creek ISD boys basketball classic. The Wildcats are the only one of four county teams to win both of their pool play games Thursday.
La Marque defeated Waller on Thursday morning but lost to state-ranked Pflugerville Connally Thursday night. The Coogs will play in the silver bracket today and Saturday. All of those games will be at Clear Lake High School.
Texas City and Santa Fe lost both of their games on Thursday and will play the rest of their games in the bronze bracket. All of those games will be at Clear Brook High School.
Lancon dislocated his right shoulder a couple of weeks ago and missed his fifth and sixth games Thursday. The Wildcats (6-5) were 0-4 without him until Thursday.
“The thing I’m most pleased with is we got some wins today,” Clear Creek coach Chris Romine said. “We’ve played so many close games that we worked hard in but came up short.”
The Wildcats defeated Clements, 53-44, behind 19 points from senior post player Ian Davis. Denzel Benson added 14 points, and Matt McNeil scored seven. Clear Creek built a double-digit lead in the first quarter against Reagan before cruising to victory. Richard Drew made four of his five 3-pointers in the third quarter on the way to 17 points. Davis scored 13 points, McNeil 11 and Justin Warren 10.
Romine said his team’s record doesn’t show how well it has played at times. Three of its losses, he added, have come to teams (Sugar Land Bush, Houston Jones, Smiley) that also would be in this week’s CCISD tournament.
The Wildcats’ fourth loss without Lancon came to Deer Park, which will be their opponent in the first round of the gold bracket today at noon at Clear Creek’s Carlisle Field House. Win or lose, they’ll play again at Clear Creek at 6 p.m.
“We’re going to have to do the little things right to beat Deer Park,” Romine said. “We’ll have to keep paying attention to the details.”
La Marque nearly joined Clear Creek in the gold bracket, which would have sent a head-turning message to the rest of the Class 4A teams in Region III.
The Coogs led Connally by one with 5½ minutes remaining in the game, but let the lead slip away and lost, 55-52. Connally is ranked No. 14 in the state coaches poll. It was a state semifinalist last season.
La Marque scored the game’s first 10 points, but Connally recovered to take a 10-point halftime lead. Marcus Allen and Keith Myers kept the Coogs in it in the third quarter. Myers scored six points, and Allen made three of his four 3-pointers.
Myles Booker gave La Marque the lead with a tip in at the 5:30 mark, but once Connally regained the lead, the Coogs couldn’t get closer than one point. They had a chance to tie the game with a late 3-pointer but missed.
Myers led La Marque with 17 points and nine rebounds. Allen had 16 points. Chris Rellford had six points and six rebounds, and Jordan Dotson had four points and four assists. Jim Wooten had two points, four assists and four steals and Donte Evans had four steals.
La Marque coasted past Waller, 66-42, in its morning game. Booker and Allen scored 12 points apiece. Rellford added 10 points and Wooten seven. The Coogs will play Nacogdoches at 1:30 p.m. today at Clear Lake High School’s auxiliary gym. Win or lose, they will play again at 7:30 p.m. also at Clear Lake.
LaPorte 65, Texas City 53
Pflugerville Hendrickson 79, Texas City 55
At Clear Lake High School
Texas City coach Bob Emmerson said LaPorte and Hendrickson are the toughest teams his Stings have played this season. La Porte advanced to the Class 5A regional quarterfinals last season.
Hendrickson advanced to the second round of the class 4A playoffs last season and began this season ranked in the top 15 of the state coaches poll.
Thanks to Hendrickson’s active full-court press, the Stings (4-3) fell behind by 14 late in the first quarter, but pulled within three points with 1:50 left in the first half. The Hawks regained a significant advantage with seven points over the next minute then added a late 3-pointer to take a 13-point lead into halftime. Hendrickson led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter.
“(The end of the first half) was more of a mental lapse than anything,” Emmerson said. “We stopped doing the things that helped us get back in the game.”
Isaiah Matthews led Texas City with 13 points against Hendrickson. Marcus Williams and Charles Lynch scored seven points apiece. Cameron Pratt had six points and six rebounds, Devin Gray five points and five rebounds and Jeremy Hilton six points.
Gray and Greg Wilson scored 11 points apiece against LaPorte. Matthews added nine points and Ashton Lacy seven.
Texas City will play at 12 p.m. today in Clear Brook’s main gym. Win or lose, the Stings will play again at 6 p.m. at Clear Brook.
Deer Park 70, Santa Fe 47
DeRidder (La.) 54, Santa Fe 39
At Clear Creek High School
Santa Fe fell to 1-4 with losses to two Class 5A teams.
Senior point guard Justin Meadows said the Indians have played a difficult schedule to this point and that they have figured out what their problems are.
“We’ll be good when district comes,” Meadow said. “We have the talent. We just have to mature as a team.”
Santa Fe will play Austin Reagan at 1:30 p.m. today at Clear Brook. Win or lose, it will play again at 7:30 p.m. at Clear Brook.
