The Wylie boys basketball team closed out the Catclaw Classic with a hard-fought win, holding off a late rally to defeat Canyon West Plains 45-38 on Saturday afternoon at Bulldog Gym.
Leading 22-15 at halftime, the Bulldogs saw the Wolves narrow the gap to a single point on a pair of occasions in the fourth quarter. But coach Gregg Ruffin’s squad answered the final West Plains push with back-to-back 3-pointers and made all four of their fourth-quarter free throws to create some separation down the stretch.
The victory gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 record at their annual tournament and improved Wylie’s overall mark to 8-6 for the season.
“We won a close game, and we haven’t done that this year sometimes,” Ruffin said. “When the heat turns up on us, we’ve kind of faltered some, but today we stayed the course.
“Winning’s not easy. It’s tough, and they’re a good team. They’re missing some (players) from their football team, but they were a region finalist last year. They’re a good team, and they know how to win. So I thought we did a good job. It was a good defensive effort for us all day.”
Wylie, which followed a 49-40 loss to Fort Worth Chisholm Trail with an 80-35 win over Midland Greenwood on the Classic’s first day, got off to a fast start Saturday, pushing out to a 13-6 lead after one quarter.
And the Bulldogs maintained that seven-point advantage into the second half, as both teams scored nine points in a defensive second quarter.
West Plains started to make its move out of halftime, outscoring Wylie 14-10 in the the third period to trim the deficit to 32-29. And the Wolves continued that surge in the fourth, pulling within a point at 32-31 and again at 35-34. But 3-pointers by Swade Sipe and King Lloyd stretched the Bulldogs’ lead back to seven at 41-34 with 4:09 to play in the game and shifted momentum back to the home bench.
The Wolves had one final rally in them, pulling within three (41-38) on a runout layup off a turnover near midcourt, but Wylie shut West Plains out over the final 2:15 and made its free throws late to secure the victory.
“That was the key. We had one bad turnover that led to a layup, but other than that, we executed pretty well,” Ruffin said. “We knew we were going to have to fight through contact because they were needing to get their fouls up. Then when we got to the line, we hit our free throws. That’s how you win close games.”
The Bulldogs were led in the win by Sipe, who hit four 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 16 points, while Isaiah Carrillo also reached double figures with 13 points. Blaze Ruffin and King were Wylie’s next-leading scorers with eight and six points, respectively.
West Plains, meanwhile, was paced by Ayden Larra with 15 points and Nyko Larra with 11.
With two of their tournaments now behind them, the Bulldogs will play one more game before Christmas — at home against Granbury on Tuesday — before going to the prestigious Whataburger Tournament on Dec. 26-28.
Ruffin said he likes where his team stands after an up-and-down start.
“If we can stay the course and we can start developing our roles and understand those roles, this team has a chance to be pretty good,” the coach said. “I like where we’re going and I like where we might possibly get to.”
CATCLAW CLASSIC
WYLIE 45, CANYON WEST PLAINS 38
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | ||
| West Plains | 6 | 9 | 14 | 9 | — | 38 |
| Wylie | 13 | 9 | 10 | 13 | — | 45 |
West Plains — Nyko Larra 4 0-0 11, Ayden Larra 7 0-0 15, Beckett Jones 1 0-0 2, Camden Schaumburg 1 0-0 2, Ethan Gilliam 2 0-0 4, Seth Watson 0 2-2 2, Max Macon 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 2-2 38.
Wylie — Will Evans 1 0-0 2, Swade Sipe 4 4-4 16, Isaiah Carrillo 5 3-4 13, Gavyn Fernandez 0 0-0 0, Blaze Ruffin 3 2-4 8, Fisher 0 0-0 0, King Lloyd 2 0-0 6, Jadin Karleskint 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 9-12 45.
3-Point Goals — West Plains 4 (N.Larra 3, A.Larra 1); Wylie 6 (Sipe 4, Lloyd 2). Fouled Out — None. Technical Fouls — None. Total Fouls — West Plains 13; Wylie 6.