A no-look pass from Strake Jesuit’s Joey Brooks to James Wiseman late in the first quarter Tuesday night caught the Cy-Fair boys basketball team napping.

The Crusaders made sure the Bobcats didn’t get chances to wake up.

Strake Jesuit trailed by four points early, but outscored visiting Cy-Fair by 42 points after that to cruise to a 75-37 victory in District 17-5A.

Cy-Fair (10-9, 4-4) thrived on 3-pointers at the onset but inexplicably seemed to fall asleep with less than a minute left in the first, when Brooks, a junior who already has verbally committed to Notre Dame, sent a pass to Wiseman behind a screen for an easy layup.

That started an 8-0 run featuring several baskets off transition, an overriding theme for the Crusaders (16-3, 7-1) both Tuesday night and the entire season.

“That pass gave us the momentum a little bit, and then what we tried to do was pick up our defensive momentum and just try to be more aggressive,” said Brooks, who scored a game-high 17 points. “That led to some easy baskets on offense. … In a little bit of the first quarter we didn’t play as hard as we can, but in the second quarter we played hard and that translated into a big win.”

Austin Claunch added 15 points for Strake Jesuit, which had five scorers in double-figures. Trent Rogers had 13 points, Wes Williams 12 and Wiseman 10.

Claunch’s 3-point play late in the first half put the Crusaders ahead 38-25, the closest the Bobcats would get the rest of the night.

Brooks took his turn dominating in the third quarter, slamming home two dunks in the first 2 minutes, 10 seconds and dishing a beautiful pass to Claunch for another basket and a 50-30 lead.

“We have a lot of guys who can get hot at different times,” Claunch said. “When we get out and we’re distributing the ball and we’re all hitting shots, we’re tough to beat.”

Save a brief flurry in the second quarter, Cy-Fair was handcuffed offensively the final three quarters. The Bobcats scored eight points in the third and only two in the fourth, none in the final 6 minutes, 14 seconds.

Joshua Emery scored 11 points and David Harris 10 for Cy-Fair.

“The coaches really got into us (after the first quarter) and told us to pick up the intensity both ways,” Claunch said. “Our speed was a big problem for them, but us picking up the intensity on defense really hurt them. We got some turnovers early in that second half, got us some transition buckets and really gave us some momentum.”

Strake Jesuit remained a game behind nationally-ranked Cypress Springs in the district race.

The Crusaders last shot at the district championship likely will come Feb. 12 at home against Springs, the second-to-last regular-season game for Strake and Springs’ season finale.

“We’ve forgotten about (an 81-50 loss to Springs on Dec. 4) and won all our games since,” Brooks said. “I feel we’re the best team in the district, and if we do what we’re supposed to do we’re gonna be district champs.”

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