NEDERLAND — Pat Abel has seen some bad quarters before in his 16 years as head coach at Port Neches-Groves.
He had never seen one of his Indians teams score zero points in a quarter and go on to win the game. He watched his Indians team do just that Thursday at the Bulldog Classic.
PN-G rallied behind the sharp shooting of Ram Polavarapu and defeated Little Cypress-Mauriceville, 35-31. PN-G (2-3) trailed 9-0 after the first period and was behind 15-6 at the break.
The Indians did not score until there was 7:30 left in the second.
Sophomore Haden Wiggins scored the period’s first two points as the Indians closed to within 9-2. Keynel McZeal and Wiggins each added two free throws.
“I’ve been through a lot of games but I have to say that is a first,” Abel said. “That just shows you how valuable each quarter of the game is. You have to play the whole game.”
The first period was not a bad shooting period for the Indians because PN-G only got off three shot attempts.
LC-M (2-3) got four points from Katon Brown in the first period and also got a trey from Keegan Sonnier and a bucket from JaColven Provost.
Polavarapu got hot in the third with three treys as PN-G outscored LC-M 14-10 in the period.
After back-to-back three pointers by Polavarapu, Sonnier hit two free throws to give the Bears a 25-18 advantage.
Polavarapu was not done shooting. The senior guard knocked down another three and PN-G trailed 25-21 heading into the fourth.
His fourth trey of the game brought the Indians to within 27-26 midway into the period.
PN-G’s Derrick Papa knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game at 31-31 with 53 seconds left in the game.
The Indians took their first lead of the game with 15 ticks left, when Edsel Damo put in a bucket. Damo’s two free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining in the game sealed the PN-G victory.
“LC-M, they do such a great job,” Abel said. “They execute their offense and defense so well. They didn’t score much either, but their defense was holding us from scoring.
“In the second half we had a couple of shots fall for us. We decided to wake up and get off the bus. We played better defense and I was pleased with that.”
Polvarapu scored 12 for the Indians while Damo, McZeal and Wiggins each had four points.
Brown had nine for the Bears and Simmons had seven. Sonnier and Daspit each had five for LC-M.
PN-G returns to the Classic at 10:30 a.m. today to face Fallbrook Christian. The Indians also take on Beaumont Kelly at 4:30 p.m. today.
Nederland hosts Hamshire-Fannett at 7:30 tonight.