Doty, Indians drop hammer on Mustangs
By Cody Pastorella
The Port Arthur News
The trifecta of Port Neches-Groves basketball players Layne Norris, Spencer DeRon and Brennan Doty proved to be a 12 points too much for the West Orange-Stark Mustangs on Tuesday night at the Reservation, where the Indians held on for a 69-57 victory to improve to 9-2 on the season.
If it were not for WO-S's Jarvis Jones' 3-point shooting, the final score could have been extremely lopsided, as PN-G owned a 51-31 with 2:25 left in the third quarter.
That's when Jones buried back-to-back treys to spark a quick a 14-4 run to end the third frame, trimming the Indians advantage to 55-45. That charge was capped off by a 3-pointer from Robert Redd, who scored the Mustangs first two buckets in the fourth quarter and set up Jones with his fifth three of the night.
Jones led WO-S with 20 points and was responsible for five of his team's seven 3-pointers in the contest. That last one came with 2:34 left in the final period and cut the game to 59-52.
But Doty, who led all players with 32 points on Tuesday, was able to finish what he started. He answered Jones' three with an old fashion 3-point play to get his team's lead back to 10.
Then after a long ball from WO-S' Kendrick Buduine, Doty sent a pass to DeRon, who laid in his 15th point of the night. That brought the score 64-55 with 1:49 left to play.
From there, the Mustangs were forced to foul and Doty hit 3-of-4 from the line in the closing 1:30 to put the win on ice. Doty scored the game's first point and the last point and in between, he hit four shots from behind the arc, grabbed four rebounds, dished out four assists and made two steals.
Meanwhile, DeRon hauled in 13 of the Tribe's 27 rebounds. He also had seven assists, and three steals. Norris pitched in with five rebounds, two steaks and three assists to go with his 13 points. Not to be forgotten in the mix, Dylan Richards made six outstanding blocks and had four rebounds as well.
The Tribe held WO-S to just 17 rebounds. The biggest difference in the game, however, came during PN-G's big run in the third quarter. The Indians held a 37-28 lead at the break but then opened the third with a 14-3 run that opened their advantage to 51-31.
PN-G boss Pat Abel said his team's ability to hit important shots, especially in Doty's case, played a significant role in the Indians victory and overall success this season.
"Hitting those shots was, key shots in the game, that kept us in control of the game," said Abel whose team opens District 20-4A competition on Friday with a road trip to Mauriceville. "I thought we had our best night rebounding as well. We did a great job taking away those second chance opportunities from them (WO-S)."
Abel added that his team's hot start this season has been contributed to the team's chemistry and having to learn to play with one another.
"I think the guys have a feel for one another, their strengths and weaknesses," he said. "I think we've come a long way from where we were when they (WO-S) beat us (49-45) in our second game of the season. But we only had our football guys back for about a week at that point.
"This was a big win for us. It's going to give us some good momentum going into district but we have to stay composed and not think too much into what we've accomplished so far. We still have a lot to improve on."
