5A Bi-District: Clutch fourth quarter lifts Lions by Kingwood Park

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, February 21, 2023

LUFKIN — When it got tight in the fourth quarter, the Tyler Lions stepped up.

Ashad Walker, who hit a mid-court shot at the halftime buzzer, scored 21 points and had a key steal in the final minute as the Lions defeated the Humble Kingwood Park Panthers 50-40 on Tuesday in a Class 5A bi-district basketball game at the Panther Activity Center.

Tyler (21-10) advances to the area round to face Lancaster later this week. The Panthers end their season at 16-19.

With Tyler holding a 42-40 lead, Tank Brooks found Montrell Wade underneath the basket for a Lions lead of 44-40 with 2:05 showing.

Then at the 1:16 mark, Walker forced a turnover that went to Marquette Martin who passed ahead to Walker for a dunk and a 46-40 advantage.

Walker also had nine rebounds with Derrick McFall, Marquette Martin and Wade grabbing five boards each.

Martin, Walker, Jaishua Brown, McFall and Brooks each had two steals.

Others scoring for Tyler were Brown (8), McFall (7), Martin (5), Wade (5) and Brooks (4).

Brad Garcia led the Panthers with 12 points, of which all came in the second half. He had hit three straight treys before Walker swiped his fourth attempt that led to his dunk on the other end.

Trent Buringham and Jayden Henderson added 10 points each. Henderson had five boards.

Tyler was 4 of 9 from the 3-point line (Walker, 2; Martin, 1; Brown, 1) and 9 of 16 on free throws.

The Panthers were 4 of 12 (Garcia, 3; Burningham, 1) and Kingwood Park was 4 of 10 at the free throw line.

The Lions got a big boost right before halftime. After Burningham drained two free throws with 2.2 seconds on the clock, McFall got the ball to Walker who dribbled once, lined up his shot and swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Tyler a 24-16 lead.

The Panthers took a 10-3 lead before the Lions scored 13 consecutive points to take a 16-10 advantage.

Tyler held Kingwood Park scoreless from the 3:51 mark of the first quarter until 2:53 of the second when Jayden Henderson hit an inside shot.

The Lions took an 11-10 lead when Brown drained a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in the first quarter.