After battling through a tough District 18-5A schedule, the Katy boys basketball team pulled out its first district win with a 52-47 victory over Mayde Creek Friday night.

But even though the Tigers won the game on the court, coach Patrick Okruhlik wants to make sure his team wins the most important conflict of all.

“We’re a team that’s been struggling a bit and battling ourselves,” Okruhlik said. “What we are worried about is past struggles have made us a little bit passive. We’re not pleased with that and are not being as aggressive as we like. That’s gotten us into trouble the last couple of weeks.”

Now that they have the win under their belt, Okruhlik is challenging his team to feed off that momentum.

“As a coach it is my job to motivate my players,” Okruhlik said.

With a 31-24 lead at halftime, Katy managed to still hold a slight advantage. But a few costly turnovers and transition baskets made by Mayde Creek, the game was tied a 42 with less than six minutes to go in the game.

“I didn’t think we played as hard as we could and as good as we could defensively,” Okruhlik said. “We wanted to dictate the pace.”

And soon enough they did. The Tigers got a couple stops, forcing Mayde Creek into a must-foul situation, which in part helped them to win the game.

Leading the way for Katy was Stephen Blanchard with 12 points. Paul Lowery had 10 points and Christian Okruhlik added another nine.

“They (Blanchard and Lowery) have been the two go-to guys all year long,” Okruhlik said. “Stephen has been our most consistent on scoring and rebounding. Paul is real good offensively.”

For the Rams, Lamar Coward led all scorers with 19 points. Norman Jackson and Matt Porche each chipped in with nine points.

The Tigers will start Round 2 of district play next week with Alief Taylor. And with only single win in district, Okruhlik is still confident at the Tigers’ chances for postseason play.

“You know the way this district is going to go, we have one win and we are not out of it,” Okruhlik said. “Only one team has really beat us sound in this district. With the exception of that one, but have been in it.”

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