GRANBURY —
Both Cleburne teams traveled to Granbury on Tuesday night with a chance to improve their standings in District 7-4A play. Entering the contests, the Yellow Jackets were 11-10 and 1-6 in 7-4A play while the Lady Jackets were 8-19 and 0-9.
After losing at the buzzer, 66-64, to Granbury at home to begin District 7-4A play, the Pirates completed the season sweep of the Yellow Jackets with a 54-48 win at Granbury High School.
Cleburne clawed to within four at 50-46 in the closing minutes, but the Pirates were able to make free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Cleburne is now 11-11 and 1-7 in District 7-4A play.
The game was a see-saw affair throughout with the teams deadlocked at seven with 1:30 left in the first quarter before Conner Adams sank two free throws to put Granbury up by two.
The Pirates kept Cleburne at bay with solid first-half efforts by Adams, who had six points early on for Granbury, along with Zack Villa and Ryan Maldanado who pitched in seven points in the early going. Conner Martyniuk struggled in the first half, managing just one point in the opening 12 minutes. He broke out of that struggle with a big 3-pointer and Brezaun Miller added a layup off a Granbury turnover to tie the game at 21 with 2:43 left in the first half.
Cleburne tied the game up at 25-25 as Miller found a slashing Preston Bullard for a layup. That was the score at halftime.
Maes finished with 15 points to lead Cleburne and Bullard finished with 11. It was the second game in a row for Bullard to score 11 points.
Martyniuk finished with eight points and six boards and Quade Coward had seven points and eight boards.
No. 21 Lady Pirates 59, Cleburne 36
Granbury prevailed in both contests with the Lady Pirates earning a 59-36 win in the first of the night’s two contests.
Granbury took a 15-7 lead after the first quarter and Lilly VanderZee helped the Lady Pirates maintain a double-digit lead at halftime, 31-19. She led all scorers at halftime with 15 points. Lacy Stinebaugh had eight points to lead Cleburne at halftime.
Cleburne lost its last 7-4A contest on Friday, 68-29, to No. 21 Arlington Seguin.
The Lady Jackets wouldn’t go away in the third as they fought back from a 16-point deficit to cut it to 39-28 on a jumper from Kennedy Foster.
VanderZee picked up her fourth foul after hacking Avery Hough with two seconds remaining in the third quarter, and Cleburne cut the lead to 41-29 as Hough sank one of two free throws.
Things began to fall apart for the Lady Jackets in the fourth quarter as the Lady Pirates opened with back-to-back baskets, and Cleburne was unable to take advantage of VanderZee sitting on the bench with four fouls.
Bria McCullough led Cleburne with 12 points, VanderZee finished with 31.
