• Mike Forman •
• Originally published January 17, 2009 at 12:54 a.m., updated January 17, 2009 at 12:54 a.m.

Memorial beat Laredo Nixon for third place in the Edinburg basketball tournament 16 games and six weeks ago.

Memorial got a pleasant reminder of the past Friday night at the senior campus gym by rolling to a 72-41 win over Corpus Christi King.

The Vipers not only snapped a two-game District 27-5A losing skid, but also reached the 70-point mark for the first time since their win over Nixon.

"That's one of our best offensive games in a good while," Memorial coach John Grammer said. "Part of it was they were pressuring us and forcing us to play, but we did a good job of handling it and made some shots."

The Vipers went up 4-3 on a follow shot by Tyler Friedel and never gave up the lead while improving to 17-7 and 3-2 in district.

Memorial overcame some early turnovers created by the King (10-15, 0-5) press and took a comfortable 13-point lead into halftime before putting the game away by opening the third quarter with a 16-4 run.

"We just came out and played hard and wanted to make up for last week," Memorial post Donte McGee said. "We had a nasty taste in our mouth from the (San Antonio) Highlands game (a 68-49 loss). We got killed. We just wanted to get back and get ready for the (Converse) Judson game next week."

McGee was a force under the basket, controlling the boards and scoring a game-high 18 points.

"Rebounding-wise, some blocked shots, not getting fouls and just being patient and standing down, I thought he dominated down there," Grammer said.

"I'm just playing my best basketball right now in the middle of the district," McGee added. "I'm just playing really hard so we can win."

McGee had help from his teammates as Jordan Hobbs made a trio of 3-pointers and scored 13 points and Jeremy Rucker and Friedel each contributed 12 points.

The Vipers also played hard on the defensive end, limiting the Mustangs to five points in the first quarter and seven in the third quarter.

"That's one of the things we talked about," Grammer said. "I said 'Hey guys, if you want to be a playoff team, you've got to go get this team. We're at home. We've just to go get it.'"

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