Friendswood roundballers sit atop District 20-5A leaderboard
January 30, 2025
“We played one style in the first half and were then kind of forced into a different style in the second half, and that takes a lot of discipline, a lot focus, and I thought our kids were able to make that flip there,” said Friendswood head boys basketball coach Danny Russell, whose Mustangs improved to 7-1 in district play with the victory. “I was pleased with our kids’ ability to make that transition.”
The Mustangs jumped on the Tors from the opening tipoff and never looked back after getting a 6-0 lead in the first quarter.
Friendswood closed out the first period and the beginning of the second quarter with a 12-0 run to build a 25-8 advantage.
After building a 36-18 lead, Ball High closed the gap at intermission 36-23.
The pace of the game changed in the second half as the speed of the game slowed down.
“We’re just not finishing, we’re having too many lapses on defense,” said Ball High head boys basketball coach Jerald Temple, whose Tors fell to 3-5 in district. “We missed a lot of chip shots and gave up some offensive rebounds. …I was proud of the kids’ effort tonight, but we’ve got to put it together for four quarters.”
The teams finished tied 10-10 at the end of the third quarter to make the score 46-33 entering the final stanza.
Ball High held the Mustangs scoreless for almost six minutes of the fourth quarter, but the Tors could only cut the margin to 46-38 before Friendswood's P.J. Harris canned a 3-pointer at the 2:09 mark to make the score 49-38.
“That was definitely a difficult stretch for us, but we had some timely stops and some timely buckets,” Russell said.
Eight different Mustangs players found their way into the scorebook led by Brady Fiesinger (12 points) and Chase Richardson (10 points) as Friendswood closed out the game 50-38 to remain atop the district leaderboard.
