North Crowley uses 3rd-quarter run to get past Arlington Martin

By Greg Bogomol

Special to the Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON -- For 24 minutes North Crowley and Arlington Martin stood toe-to-toe, but it was during an eight-minute stretch in the third quarter where the Panthers separated themselves.

North Crowley dominated Martin with a 15-2 run -- during which Martin went 0 for 11 on field goals and had six turnovers -- as the Panthers claimed a 51-42 District 3-5A victory on Tuesday.

During the third-quarter burst, Jalen McCloud scored nine points for North Crowley (17-6, 4-0 District 3-5A), while Kevin Simmons added four and Norense Odiase chipped in two.

"It was finally good to see this group step up and play defense like some of the past teams," North Crowley coach Tommy Brakel said. "We knew we had to match Martin's energy to win this game. This was a huge win to be able to come in here and beat them following Bowie because both had been playing so well."

McCloud led all scorers with 24 points and scored 16 of the Panthers' 26 second-half points. North Crowley was 16 of 44 from the floor for the game, including identical 8 for 22 performances in both halves.

Martin (17-5, 3-1) hung with the Panthers for the first half and entered the locker room tied at 25 but couldn't make a basket in the third quarter. The Warriors didn't get their first basket of the second half until Kordell Eilts scored his only two points of the game with 6:10 to play.

The Warriors missed their first 13 shots in the second half's first 10 minutes and turned the ball over seven times.

Martin shot just 6 of 22 in the second half after hitting 10 of 17 in the first. Andrew Dotson was the only Martin player to reach double figures with 15 points.

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