Texas City dominates second half to top Friendswood

After being neutralized for a half by Friendswood’s changing defenses, Clovis McCain, Texas City’s standout forward, decided to make a change.

McCain, scoreless in the opening half and saddled with two fouls, dominated the second half with 20 points as the Stings rallied to knock off the Mustangs 36-34 in a tight-fisted boys game Friday night.

“Part of that decision came from him. The first half, he wasn’t involved. He came out and set for a lot of the second quarter and he told me something wasn’t working,’’ said Chris Mason, Texas City’s head coach. “I told them they’re not working because you’re not working.

“We cant’ get it to him if he’s not working.”

When Jackson Fiesinger hit a layup 90 seconds into the third quarter, Friendswood had its biggest lead of the game at 19-10. Moments later, McCain posted low and dropped in his first basket of the game.

It became the beginning of the end as McCain took over by scoring 20 of his team’s 26 second-half points, including 13 straight from late in the third quarter to early into the fourth period.

Marquis Thompson added two long 3-pointers as Texas City outscored Friendswood 26-17 in the half.

With another half of the District 18-5A schedule looming, Mustangs coach Caleb Marburger knows a prime opportunity to grab a huge road win was missed.

“We’ll see how it shakes out, obviously it’s still the first round,” Marburger said. “I felt we played a better game than they did. We just missed a couple of easy opportunities. We just couldn’t get anything around the rim.”

A McCain steal and layup gave Texas City its first lead at 22-20 seconds into the final quarter and a Thompson trey produced the Stings’ biggest lead at 31-24 with 4:21 to go.

Dyllan Baker’s layup, and later a free throw with 1:23 left, cut the Mustangs’ deficit to three at 34-31, but McCain dropped in two free throws with 17 ticks remaining for a 36-31 lead. Benjamin Burke then drained a long 3-pointer with one second left to end the game.

The win put Texas City at 5-0 in 18-5A heading into a Tuesday night road trip to Santa Fe. Friendswood fell to 2-2 in the district and has a home date with Manvel, also on Tuesday.

“We did what we wanted to do, win on our home court,’’ Mason said. “You’ve got to win your home games and sneak a couple on the road.”