• Mike Forman •
• Originally published January 7, 2009 at 12:11 a.m., updated January 7, 2009 at 12:11 a.m.

Memorial showed signs of progress against Converse Wagner, but not enough to avoid its first District 27-5A loss.

No. 20 Wagner constantly applied pressure and forced the Vipers into enough mistakes to come away with a 72-59 win Tuesday night at the Memorial senior campus gym.

"We had a good start," said Memorial coach John Grammer, whose team dropped to 16-6 and 2-1 in district. "We made some shots early, which is what we needed to do. We needed to get off to a good start to get some confidence. I never really thought we completely lost our confidence. We just had our spells that were just too long. Against a team like that you just can't afford to have that long of period of time where you don't score and another thing is not even get shots."

Memorial was not intimidated by the Thunderbirds' pre-game dunking ritual and, with five players scoring, jumped out to a 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Vipers used a pair of field goals by Donte McGee, who had 20 points, and a 3-pointer by Jordan Hobbs to go up 26-17 with 6:09 left in the second quarter.

But Memorial converted only one more field goal before halftime, while being outscored 18-2.

Wagner (17-6, 2-1) took control by using its pressure to force turnovers while dominating the boards, often getting three or four shots a possession.

"They had good depth and I think we got tired," Grammer said. "Not so much physically, even though it was physical, we just got fatigued mentally and we stopped going in the right places and wouldn't meet the passes and made some lazy passes."

Memorial doesn't record turnovers until viewing the videotape, but the coaching staff estimated the number around 30.

A good portion of the Vipers' miscues came in the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter when the Thunderbirds used back-to-back 3-pointers by Eddie Ortiz, who scored 13 points, and Jordan Clarkson, who had a game-high 26 points, to extend its lead to 15 points.

Shots under the basket by Powell Keeling, who had 10 points, and McGee allowed the Vipers to pull within 62-57 with 3:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. But Wagner finished the game by outscoring Memorial 10-2.

"Yes, if they'll look at it that way," Grammer said when asked if the game served as a learning experience. "I think they will. This is a good bunch of guys. They work hard. If they'll look at it the right way, this shows them they can play with a ranked team if they'll just cut back on some of their mistakes."

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