Thursday afternoon marked both a beginning and an end for the Permian Panthers.

It was the first game of 2019 for the Panthers and the end of nondistrict play as well.

It took a little bit of time, but Permian finished on a good note, cruising to a 70-29 victory over the Lubbock Titans at Permian Fieldhouse.

“I thought we came out a bit lethargic and not focused on the game early on,” Permian head coach Tim Thomas said. “We turned the ball over four times and I thought it took us a little bit to play our brand of basketball.”

The Titans took advantage of the slow start thanks to the shooting of Will Bruffey.

Bruffey scored all eight Titans points in the first quarter and finished with 10 points on the afternoon.

Seven of the 11 field goals by the Titans were from beyond the 3-point line.

Looking for a spark from the bench, Thomas replaced the starters with a fresh five looking for some energy.

He got it from Shy Stephens-Deary.

The sophomore guard provided a spark off the bench for the Panthers, scoring seven of his 13 points in the first eight minutes of the game.

The boost was part of a 13-0 run for Permian as the Panthers led 19-8 after the first quarter.

“Over the last couple of weeks, Shy has really shown a lot of growth and improvement,” Thomas said. “I’ve seen a lot of growth from everyone, but I think he’s made the biggest leap because he’s really starting to focus in on getting better.”

“I was just focused on trying to get some easy baskets,” Stephens-Deary said. “I also just wanted to work hard and play with intensity and do my part to help the team.”

The second quarter saw senior Genuwine Powell pick up the pace, adding 11 of his game-high 20 points in the frame. Powell made four 3-pointers for the game, including one just before the halftime buzzer to give the Panthers a 39-21 advantage.

“We did come out a little bit sluggish to start the game,” Powell said of the team’s performance. “But we were able to get back to how we needed to play towards the end of the first half.”

From there, the Panthers jumped off to a hot start in the third quarter, scoring the first 11 points of the half before a 3-pointer from Lubbock’s Hunter Simpson with 2:27 broke the Titans’ scoring drought.

Simpson led the Titans in scoring with 12 points.

Permian outscored Lubbock 13-2 in the final frame to seal the win.

With the nondistrict schedule now done, the focus turns to district play, which starts Jan. 11 at Wolfforth Frenship.

“I tell the kids that you want to start the new year in a positive manner,” Thomas said. “We just want to be ready for that first district game.

He added, “We wanted to focus on us as a team and what we needed to do to get better. If we take care of us, we can take care of other things.”
