There was little doubt about the outcome of Friday’s Region 1C semifinal game against Auburn.
The Parry McCluer High School boys basketball team raced out to a 23-8 advantage after the first period and closed the first half with a 10-0 run to win going away.
While the Blues did not keep up early torrid shooting for the entire game, hitting 2 6-of-51 s hots ( 50.9 percent), they were blistering in the first quarter. PM connected on its first five shots of the contest and went on to drain nine of 10 in the period to build up the big early advantage.
“We got off to an almost perfect start,” said PM head coach Tyler Kerr. “They were good shots. We wanted to attack the rim. That was key to being 9-for-10 to start the game. When you are in a statequalifier game, that’s about as good as you can ask for to start a first quarter.”
Auburn (13-12) did get itself back into the game briefly with a 14-2 run midway through the second period, which included five Auburn 3-pointers, to trim the PM lead to five points, 33-28. The Blues closed the quarter with the 10-0 flurry to pull away again, however.
Langston Cook started the rally with a drive down the lane, and back-to-back steals from Cook and Parker Snider led to an oldfashioned three-point play and two more free throws from Nathan Glass to push the PM lead back to double digits, 46-31, at halftime. Auburn got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
“That was ginormous,” Kerr said of the spurt at the end of the second period. “We talked at a timeout that we had started to slow down, and it was turning more into a halfcourt game, which favored Auburn. The emphasis was to start pressuring the ball, and the next thing you know, a little bit of ball pressure led to a couple of steals, a couple of throwaheads, easy buckets.
“We’re a big energy team,” Kerr added. “We got a little bit of momentum going off of a couple of turnovers. For our guys to dig in to finish that half on a high note was a really, really big point of that game. We kind of slammed the door on their momentum.”
Cook scored 25 points to go along with seven rebounds and six assists to lead the Blues, and Glass added 24 points and eight caroms. Jamier Jordan added nine points on three treys to the PM cause.
Cody Fleet scored 22 points to pace Auburn, while Matthew Altizer tallied 17 points.
