Arlington Martin falls in boys regional final, McKinney snaps 94-year state drought

McKinney will be making its first trip to the UIL boys basketball state tournament since 1928 after a 58-36 drubbing of Arlington Martin in the Class 6A Region 1 final on Saturday at Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center.

The Lions (34-5) will be joining Duncanville (33-1), Humble Atascocita (34-6) and Austin Westlake (38-1) in San Antonio. The Lions will play in the state semifinals at either 7 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

”These kids just love each other and care for each other and I think if you have that as your foundation then you have a chance to build a lot of good things on top of that,” said McKinney coach Wes Watson. “We have a lot of dudes that are incredibly selfless and team-first guys. I’m beyond blessed to be in the position to be able to coach them.”

Martin (28-8) lost to McKinney 66-47 on Dec. 30 at the Whataburger tournament, but came out of the gate on fire. The Warriors were able to do something in the first 26 seconds that they failed to do in the first 9:35 of their semifinal on Friday against El Paso Americas...score a basket.

Andre Norris scored four of his six points in the first two minutes as the Warriors jumped out to a 6-0 lead with 5:55 left in the opening quarter. The first half was a game of runs as Martin built a 17-11 lead after a three-pointer by Ismael Smith Flores with 38 seconds left in the first quarter.

McKinney answered with a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and took a 21-17 lead.

Martin led 25-23 at the half, but things got out of hand for the Warriors in the third quarter. The Warriors went 1 of 7 from the field in the third quarter and had two turnovers. The Lions out scored Martin 20-3 in the frame with a three-pointer by Cydd Ford being the only points for the Warriors.

McKinney senior Alex Anamekwe went off in the third, scoring 12 of his game-high 22 points. Anamekwe, an SMU commit, had four offensive rebounds preceding nine of his points in the quarter.

The Lions had 11 rebounds, seven offensive during the span.

Leading by 15 heading into the final period, the Lions spread the floor to run the clock and take advantage of the Warriors trapping defense. Thatcher McClure was the biggest beneficiary scoring eight of his 10 points in the game on dunks, three coming in the fourth quarter.

Martin would get no closer the rest of the way.

Ja’Kobe Walter chipped in 13 points for McKinney.

Ford and Cody Stevens paced Martin with seven points each.

”In the 90’s we had some pretty good teams and have had some since I’ve been here too, but we always run into that Dallas ISD road block in the second round or the regional tournament,” said Watson. “The Dallas ISD and Lancaster have kind of had Class 5A on lock down while we were there.”