During its scrimmage against Seminole on Nov. 9, the Permian boys basketball team went 0 of 14 from 3-point range.

Those same problems didn’t surface for the Panthers in their season opener.

Permian nailed 13 3-pointers en route to a 97-55 victory over the Lubbock Titans — a Texas Home School Basketball program — in a nondistrict contest Saturday at the Permian Fieldhouse.

“To come out and see the guys that should be shooting the basketball like we know that they can shoot it, they are going to make most of their good shots and they are going to miss most of their bad shots,” Permian head coach Tim Thomas said. “We want to take good shots every time down. We took good shots and the ball was going in.”

The Panthers (1-0) had 10 players record at least one field goal.

Nakavieon White and Ryan Brazeal each posted a team-high 19 points in the win, while Elijah White added 17. Fabian Flotte, who played at Presidio last year, ended with 12.

“We all know what everybody can do, so we try to get players the ball whenever there’s plays needed to be made,” said Elijah White, who supplied 14 of his 17 points in the first half. “It felt pretty good to know that there are multiple people that can score in different ways. Everybody was playing as a team.”

Brazeal, 5-foot-10 junior guard, practiced and suited up for the Panthers during their two playoff games a year ago, but didn’t record any playing time.

He posted four 3-pointers in his varsity debut.

“It felt pretty good knowing that I was contributing to the team,” Brazeal said.

At the 4-minute, 29-second of the first quarter, the Panthers took a 10-0 lead after a layup from Derrick Wright. The Lubbock Titans leading scorer X King, who recorded a game-high 21 points, sank back-to-back 3-pointers to shrink Permian’s lead to 10-6. The Panthers called their first timeout.

Permian closed out the opening quarter on a 19-2 run after the timeout. The Panthers continued to pile on points in the second quarter and held a 52-20 lead at halftime.

The Lubbock Titans responded in the third quarter to outscore Permian 19-18. The Panthers answered in the fourth quarter with a 27-16 advantage.

“The biggest thing that I stressed to them at halftime that we didn’t need to worry about the scoreboard,” Lubbock Titans head coach Tanner Bruffey said. “We needed to start thinking about how we are going to get better. With the opportunity to play a big school like Permian, it’s great for a home school team like us and we are excited to do that.”

The Panthers continue their season against Fort Worth Trimble Tech at the Lubbock Estacado Classic at 6 p.m. Friday.

“We just try to focus on ourselves,” Elijah White said. “Once we take care of ourselves, we can take care of the other team.”
