Jalen Petillo's 37 points leads Arlington Martin to win

Arlington - Jalen Petillo handled the scoring for Arlington Martin in their 67-56 win over Frisco Liberty. Petillo scored 37 points and grabbed nine boards, accounting for over 55% of the Warriors scoring Tuesday night in their final game before they open district with Arlington Bowie.

The game was tied 27 at half, and immediately to start the second half, Petillo started the Warriors 20-5 run with a three. Martin went up 47-32 and finished off the Redhawks.

Junior Zac Watson of Liberty was in foul trouble early and sat after just two minutes in the first quarter. Watson didn’t return until the start third quarter. He made a few moves on the block and showed that he has court-vision to pass out of the paint and find the open players along the perimeter. Watson scored 10 points, but only connected on 2-of-8 free-throws.

Petillo was abusing the inside game of the Redhawks or the lack thereof as he said that the middle was wide open all game long.

“After I would set a screen, [Liberty] would leave the paint open and it made it easy for me to score,” Pettillo said. “We worked together tonight, and that allowed me to get open and score, but the most important thing is we got the win, which was big.”

Martin's head coach Clint Schnell liked what he saw on paper, and once Watson went out, he realized the advantage his team had.

"We looked at the match-up and both teams were very similar, but once [Watson] went to the bench, we found ways to exploit the middle of the paint."

With the score tied at half, Schnell challenged his team/

"We told them that the second half was going to come down to who wanted it more and encouraged them to push the ball in transition. We felt that we were in control, but we had to do was clean a few things up, hit the boards a little harder and the guys did that."

Martin will open district play next Tuesday at home against Arlington Bowie, and Schnell said that the game against Liberty was a real test for his Warriors.

"This was like a district game, we had to fight. I hope that this starts the momentum going and get us ready for the next week."

Liberty has a nice prospect in sophomore Zion Richardson. The 6-foot-4 guard uses his strength to get to the basket and is active on both ends. He will get on the glass and attack the rim on the offensive side of the ball. Richardson has a strong athletic frame and will defend. He finished with 15 points and was perfect from the free-throw line (8-for-8).