LITTLE CYPRESS — It’s still early in the season, but Port Neches-Groves’ coach Pat Abel might have one of his best Indian teams yet.
The Indians used balanced scoring and ran away in the second half against a cold Little Cypress-Mauriceville team as PN-G waltzed out of the Bear Cave with a 52-42 District 20-4A-opening victory over the Bears.
LC-M (10-6, 0-1) led 26-20 midway through the third period but the Indians (10-2, 1-0) closed the game out with a 32-16 run, including a 24-8 spurt that gave them a 44-34 lead midway through the fourth.
With leading scorer Spencer DeRon, who averages a little over 19 points a game, saddled with foul trouble throughout, several Indians rose to the occassion, especially Layne Norris and Christian Kerr.
Norris bruised his way for 13 points and seven rebounds, while Kerr, getting nice feeds from the likes of Norris and Brennan Doty, had one of his better outings of the year as he finished with 13 points. DeRon, who was whistled for his fourth foul with 4:20 left in the first half, finished with 14 points and five boards while Doty contributed eight points and nine rebounds.
The Bears’ trio of Cameron Johnson, Hunter Gonzales and Christian Harley, all who averaged around 11 points a game, finished with a combined total of 15 Tuesday night.
Junior post Preston Armstrong led the Bears with a double-double, tallying 10 points while yanking down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Guard Aldric Jones notched 10 points for LC-M while Gonzales added seven. PN-G led 11-9 at the end of the first period. Both teams were cold in the first half as it was tied up at 18-18 at intermission.
The Bears gained early control of the third period and two big buckets inside by Armstrong gave LC-M a 26-20 edge with a little more than four minutes left in the period.
The Indians, however, closed the period with a 10-0 spurt as Norris cruised inside for two big baskets and DeRon hit a three-point bomb that broke the Bears’ back.
In the fourth period, it was the “Kerr Show” as the Indian forward scored four nice buckets inside, three of them coming after superb assists. DeRon had five points in the period and Norris had four to keep the Bears at bay.
Gonzales scored six of his seven points in the final eight minutes for the Bears while Jones had five points, cutting the Indian lead to 49-42 with a little over a minute remaining.
The Indians finished with a 34-27 rebounding edge. The Bears forced PN-G into 21 turnovers while committing 20 of their own. LC-M went 13-of-21 from the free-throw line while PN-G was 16-of-29.
The Bears will look to bounce back Monday when they host old Orange County rival West Orange-Stark with the freshmen starting at 11 a.m. followed by the JV and varsity contests.
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