Bay City Tribune

Bay City's boys basketball team split its first two games in the Van Vleck Invitational Tournament which cranked up Thursday afternoon in Leopard Gymnasium.

The Blackcats held on for a 62-60 win over the host Leopards in the first game but then dropped an 88-63 decision to Sweeny later in the day. The Bulldogs beat Brazos in their first game.

Bay City (6-5) played Gonzales on Friday in the tournament and battled Brazos and Edna on Saturday.

The Leopards lost to the Apaches 66-52 in their second game. Van Vleck played Brazos on Friday and Sweeny and Edna on Saturday.

In the win over Van Vleck, the Leopards grabbed an 11-9 lead after the first quarter but Bay City rallied back to go up 27-20 at halftime.

Van Vleck stormed back to take a 46-41 advantage after the third quarter.

Bay City tied the game 52-52 after Tevin Battle hit two free throws with 3:15 remaining in the fourth quarter. Battle was fouled again. He hit both shots and put the Blackcats up 54-53 with 2:39 remaining in the game.

Van Vleck's Odis Hawkins connected with 2:20 left on the clock to put the Leopards up 55-54 Blackcat Stanley Wiley then gave the Blackcats the lead at 56-55.

The Leopards missed three shots on the other end and Wiley hit again to make it 58-55 with 1:45 left.

After a Van Vleck turnover, Deyon Proutt put in a layup for a five-point lead.

The Leopards got two free throws by Devin Ward to make it 60-57 with a minute remaining.

Ward was fouled again and he made one of two shots to make it a 2-point game.

Proutt then missed two free throws with 28 seconds left. Battle then went to the free throw line with 13 ticks left and hit both attempts to make it a 62-58 game.

Ward got a basket just before the buzzer sounded to end the contest.

Battle led all scorers with 26 points. Wiley finished with 15, Mario Romero added eight. Proutt scored seven, Greg Gonzales hit a 3-pointer and Steve Caballero had a field goal.

Hawkins and Ward scored 12 points each for the Leopards. Jaylen Brinkley added 11.

Terrance Allience and Trent Freeman finished with 10 each, Kade Kucera added four and Kalvin Singletary hit a free throw.

In the loss to Sweeny, Bay City fell behind 21-15 after the first quarter and trailed 46-21 at halftime. The Blackcats rallied back in the third quarter to outscore the Bulldogs 24-12 to make it 58-49.

Sweeny shooters got hot in the final eight minutes of the game, totaling up 30 points. Bay City could manage only 14.

Battle led the Blackcats with 20 points, hitting three 3-pointers. He also had four rebounds and four assists.

Wiley and Gonzales scored 10 points each. Proutt finished with nine. Romero had eight, Caballero scored six and Karl Sundin had a field goal.

Bay City visits Class 5A Angleton on Tuesday in a 7 p.m. tip-off.

The Blackcats host Manvel at 5 p.m. Friday before taking off for the Christmas holidays.

Van Vleck has an open date on Tuesday and hosts Brazos on Friday in a 3 p.m. contest.