5A BOYS BI-DISTRICT: Texas City pulls away from PNG at North Shore
Published 10:01 pm Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Port Neches-Groves only trailed Texas City 26-24 at halftime, looking to pull off a monumental upset of a No. 1 seed in the UIL 5A boys basketball playoffs.
The Stingarees weren’t having any of it.
A late third-period run by the Stings snowballed in the final 8 minutes, and TC ended PNG’s pursuit with a 65-43 victory at North Shore High School on Tuesday.
The playoff appearance was only the fifth in PNG’s history and first since 2013. The Indians (18-15) earned it after beating Cleveland in a District 21-5A fourth-place tiebreaker Friday in Lumberton.
The Indians actually cut into a 20-13 deficit through one quarter and were within 37-34 before the Stingarees (30-6) put the game out of reach. T.J. Fountain led the Stings with 22 points, and Jacolby Belle added 10.
Drake Rojas scored 10 to lead PNG. Trent Lee, Jackson Simmons and Brady Nail each added eight in the loss.
Texas City will face Houston Northside or Angleton in the second round.
— I.C. Murrell
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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