For the first time in nearly nine years, the Sealy Tiger boys’ basketball squad eclipsed the century mark in a game and took a 109- 14 decision over the Brazosport Christian Eagles at home last Saturday afternoon. Sealy improved to 6-3 with the win while Brazosport Christian fell to 1-11.

The Eagles didn’t crack the scoreboard until more than three minutes came off the clock and the first quarter ended with a 37-1 score on the board. Brazosport Christian hit double digits with 10 minutes left in the game but didn’t record a point in the final frame and ultimately fell by 95 points, making it the Tigers’ largest margin of victory in the last decade.

Going back to the 2006-2007 season, the only other time Sealy reached triple digits was in a 100-77 district win over the Kipp Academy Kerberos on Jan. 27, 2012. In that contest, junior Ricky Seals-Jones led the Tigers with 35 points and 20 rebounds, senior Ryan Klesper recorded 27 points and 12 rebounds junior Kris Brown finished with 16 points and six rebounds.

In last Saturday’s win over the Eagles, all 11 Sealy scorers registered at least four points and five finished with double digits. Freshman Reid Miller led the way with 20 points, senior Nick Martinez poured in 17 points, junior Callen Rabius contributed 15 points and senior classmates Donte Beasley and Lane Holley each added 11 points.

Miller did most of his damage in the second half where he came off the bench and executed techniques head coach Cody Carruthers had him working on in practice.

“Started off the year learning his role, he went from being the top dog in eighth grade to now a role player for me,” Carruthers said of Miller. “We broke down some specific moves I want him to do and when he bought into that and learned, ‘Hey if I do this, I’ll be successful,’ he’s been good.”

His scoring efforts were complemented by solid defensive play and a successful press defense that forced turnovers. Still, Carruthers said there is still plenty to work on after non-district play came to an end.

“At first, we were pressing and doing some good things but still missing some open layups which is a constant deal we’re working on,” Carruthers said. “I thought they did a really good job after I kind of woke them up and said, ‘We’ve got district on Tuesday and it’s time to get after it.’”

The Tigers notched non-district wins over Needville, Columbus, Snook, Edna, Legacy Prep and Brazosport Christian and fell to Madisonville once and Schulenburg twice. Although it can be difficult to compare wins and losses to common opponents, Carruthers said he felt good about where the team was heading into the fight for playoff positioning.

“I’m very happy, still lose a little bit of sleep over the Schulenburg games but Schulenburg’s a good team and other teams have had a hard time with them,” Carruthers said. “All we can do right now is judge how we play people and how they play other people and that’s not always great.”

Earlier this week, Sealy traveled to Wharton to open play within District 24-4A and the head coach said he wanted to make some noise early on.

“I’m thinking we can play with everybody and I’ve been telling them all along that I want to surprise teams,” Carruthers said last Saturday. “We start off with Wharton and on paper, they’re one of the best schools for sure and I’d like nothing more than to start off and surprise them. We’re going to game plan and show up just like we do every other time.”

Leading up to the district-opening contest, the head coach said the team has developed a rhythm and will look to carry that seamlessly into their district slate.

“The good news is we still have some of the same things to work on,” Carruthers said. “Some of the little things we’ll work on in practice, our free-throw percentage is low. It seems like the harder we work on something, the worse we get which doesn’t make sense but we’ve been instilling a routine and all that so it’s really nothing different for us.”