The Permian Panthers faced perhaps their biggest challenge of the season Friday in the Tascosa Rebels.

Permian stepped up in a big way, defeating the Rebels 51-37 at the Permian Fieldhouse in a matchup that decided sole possession of first place in the District 2-6A boys basketball race.

Ozzy Terrazas had 12 points and nine rebounds as the Panthers (21-3 overall, 3-0 disrtict) pulled away in the second half. Permian used a 12-0 run on both the third and fourth quarters to outscore Tascosa 30-16 in the second half after battling to a 21-21 halftime tie.

Permian coach Tim Thomas said the Panthers were able to bounce back from Tuesday’s victory over crosstown rival Odessa High and raise their game against the defending district champions.

“Just coming off the emotional high of the crosstown rivalry game, I thought we started off a little flat being we were playing a great team like Tascosa,” Thomas said. “To come back and respond the way we did the second half says a lot about our kids. We really changed things at halftime and came out and got it done.”

Brother Miller, Zach McGee and Justin Hammond each scored seven points for the Panthers, while Elijah White and Derrick Wright added six points apiece.

Tascosa (16-8, 2-1) dropped into a tie for second place in the district standings with Odessa High. Cameron Brown led the Rebels with 15 points with Clark Davidson adding 10.

In a first half that saw six lead changes and four ties, Permian made the first move with a 9-0 run to start the second quarter, taking a 17-10 lead on White’s basket with 4:18 left in the half. Tascosa responded with an 11-2 run for a 21-19 lead on Davidson’s basket with 35 seconds left, but McGee converted a one-and-one with 0.37 seconds left in the half to tie the game at the break.

Tascosa went back in front briefly to start the third quarter before Permian took control with its first 12-0 run. Terrazas had six points in the quarter as the Panthers a 12-point lead.

“My coach tried to put me in the best position to get the ball inside and my teammates tried to do their best to pass it to me,” Terrazas said. “As a team, we all put in and got the play.”

Thomas said a combination of Miller’s foul trouble and Tascosa’s defensive matchups led Permian to make Terrazas the focal point of the offense.

“We made a conscious effort the second half to really go inside to Ozzy and try to post up guys inside,” Thomas said. “Ozzy came up big, had nine rebounds, four offensive. We got the ball inside to him and it really helped open some things up. We felt like we may have an advantage with him inside, so we changed up and wanted to really get touches for him inside.”

Thomas said the adaptability the Panthers showed will be vital as the district race continues.

“We pride ourselves on being a versatile team,” he said. “We can fast break if we have it. If we don’t have it and they make us play half court, we play half court. If they slow the game down, we can play that way. We like up-tempo, but if they’re getting back in a zone, sagging, trying to slow us down, we can adjust.

“Elijah White had four steals and five rebounds, big defensive rebounds in the second half, 3 for 3 from the field. We had some guys really step up, especially that second half, and do the things we talked about that were key — rebounding the basketball, getting inside, transition defense. Tonight, we took care of that.”
