Nakaveion White had an immediate impact upon his return to the Permian boys basketball lineup Tuesday.

The Panthers defeated Midland High 50-42 at the Permian Fieldhouse in a key District 2-6A game, clinching a playoff berth and remaining tied for first place in the district standings. Permian overcame a five-point deficit at the end of the third quarter with a 15-0 run to start the fourth.

“The thing for us is we want to play great defense,” Permian coach Tim Thomas said. “I tell the guys defense travels. It’s important at home, but it also travels. We want to guard people.

“We were letting them run up and down the court and shoot 3s and do things and they got loose a little bit. We had to batten down the hatches in that fourth quarter.”

White, in his first outing since the championship game of the Caprock Classic on Dec. 29 in Lubbock, scored 24 points, putting Permian in front to stay on a basket with 5:28 to go.

The Panthers (21-7 overall, 6-2 district) avenged two previous losses to the Bulldogs (18-13, 5-3). Midland High defeated Permian 46-41 on Dec. 7 and 65-52 in the first district meeting. White did not play in either game.

“It went great,” White said of Tuesday’s performance. “I love my teammates. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to get back in there and play how I played.”

Keyonta Johnson scored eight points for Permian with Shy Stephens-Deary adding six. Genuwine Powell scored five points and Jonathan Anaya had four.

Midland High was led by Nathaniel Rodriguez with 13 points and Rahkiem Petterson with 12. Xadrian Van Buren and Nicholas Terrazas each added six points.

Johnson helped seal the victory with a series of plays in the final two minutes. The junior grabbed an offensive rebound and after being fouled, hit two free throws with 1:50 remaining. On Permian’s next possession, he grabbed another rebound and converted a three-point play with 1:15 to go, then forced a Midland High turnover seconds later that resulted in more Permian free throws.

“It was being there, the right place at the right time,” Johnson said. “I was just trying to get my team the win.”

The sequence allowed Permian to turn a four-point lead into a 10-point cushion in the final minute.

“(Johnson) had a stretch where he really impacted the game,” Thomas said. “I got on him at halftime about missed layups in the first half, so he really came through. He responded, and as a coach, you like to see a kid respond when you challenge him to do better.”

Midland High had made a habit of getting off to fast starts. That wasn’t the case Tuesday as the Bulldogs missed their first five shots and finished the first quarter trailing 11-5 after shooting 2 for 8 and committing 10 turnovers.

Permian finished the night shooting 42.9 percent (18 of 42), while the Bulldogs shot 41.5 percent (17 of 41). Midland High outrebounded the Panthers 30-27, but committed 20 turnovers to Permian’s 14.

“When you turn the ball over 20 times against a team like Permian, it’s going to be very difficult to win,” Midland High coach Shan Hooker said. “We had a good third quarter and were unable to maintain that in the fourth quarter. We turned it over, scored four points and just didn’t finish like we should have.”

The Bulldogs picked up a bit in the second quarter, closing to within 15-14 on a 3-pointer by Rodriguez with 3:29 left in the half. Permian closed the half on an 8-2 run to lead 23-16 at the break and pushed the margin to 29-18 three minutes into the third quarter.

That’s when the Bulldogs caught fire. Midland High outscored Permian 20-4 over the last 4:43 of the period, taking the lead for the first time at 36-33 on another Rodriguez 3-pointer with 1:31 left in the third.

As quickly as the Bulldogs heated up, they cooled off in the fourth. Permian held Midland High scoreless until Van Buren scored with 34 seconds remaining in the game. By that point, the Panthers had scored 15 consecutive points to take a 10-point lead.
