Wylie senior Camden Love (4) drives past two McKinney North defenders for a layup on Nov. 25 at the Mongtomery Center. Photo by Elijah Kloepping / C&S Media
By Mark Saldana
A dominant second-half surge lifted the Wylie Pirates to a 61-40 win over McKinney North on Tuesday in a non-district matchup, improving Wylie to 5-3 on the season.
The Pirates (5-1) opened the night with balanced play on both ends of the floor, relying on early defensive pressure and rebounding to steady the tempo in a low-scoring first quarter. While both offenses struggled to find rhythm, Wylie created separation in the second period behind contributions from Chase Hughes and Noah Dzurenko and carried a 24-18 lead into halftime.
Wylie’s offense ignited out of the break. Hughes sparked the Pirates with a fast-break layup, and Dzurenko followed with a reverse finish to extend the advantage to 30-24. Moments later, Hughes drilled a deep three to push the lead to nine before Henry Stark connected on a jumper. Dzurenko closed the quarter with a buzzer-beater, giving Wylie a 38-33 lead entering the fourth.
The Pirates took full control in the final frame. Hughes converted a strong drive to open the quarter, then buried another momentum-shifting three as the lead swelled into double digits. Camden Love added a perimeter shot to make it 51-35 as Wylie’s defense tightened, holding McKinney North to seven fourth-quarter points.
“We had some good energy down the stretch,” Wylie head coach Stephen Pearce said. “I hope our guys see when we turn the pressure up on defense — we really saw it in the fourth quarter — what it can lead to on the offensive side.”
Hughes led the Pirates with 13 points, while Love added nine and Dzurenko scored eight, including the quarter-ending jumper in the third.
Pearce pointed to the trio’s impact late.
“Chase made quite a few threes down the stretch,” Pearce said. “And Cam Love — he played the mess out of some defense and got our energy going. Those two guys stood out to me more than anything.”
With district play approaching, Pearce emphasized staying grounded.
“For us, it’s just one day at a time, one game at a time,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of things to clean up on both ends of the court, but we played well down the stretch. That was a good one.”
Wylie returns to action after the Thanksgiving break with a matchup against Lake Highlands before competing in the Royse City tournament, then turning its focus to the start of district play.
Wylie dominates North Garland
The Lady Pirates were also a winner to commence District 9-6A play.
Sade Mathes netted a game-high 16 points and Ronelyse Hartfield poured in 12 points in a 61-25 triumph over North Garland while the Lady Raiders held the Lady Raiders to 11 points in the first half.
Shamya Johnson fueled a fast start with six points in the first quarter. She finished with 11 points.
The Lady Pirates (7-4 overall, 1-0 district) led 28-11 at halftime.
The win comes a few days after Wylie went 3-2 in the Burleson Centennial Tournament.
To commence tournament play, Wylie dominated in a 56-14 triumph over Dallas Hillcrest. The Lady Pirates lost their next two games, falling to Amarillo 63-61 in overtime and Brock 58-57, but finished the three-day event with back-to-back wins against Episcopal School of Dallas (66-50) and Everman (59-49).
Aubrey Green scored 13 points in Wylie’s win over Hillcrest, followed by nine from Johnson and seven by Peyton Kelly.
The Lady Pirates built a 25-5 first quarter lead and never looked back before cruising to the 42-point win.
— C&S Media sports editor David Wolman contributed to this report
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