(Marion) – Both Marion High School basketball teams dropped District 26-3A home games to San Antonio-Cole on Tuesday, with the girls falling 57-29 and the boys coming up short to the No. 2 ranked Cougars 55-43.
The Bulldogs got off to a slow start and couldn’t recover in the boys game.
Cole jumped out to a 20-7 lead by the end of the first quarter and took a 33-16 cushion into halftime.
Marion won the third quarter 15-11 and the fourth 12-11, but it wasn’t enough to chip away at the deficit.
Dominic Castellanos led the Bulldogs with 15 points. Fernando Romero added nine, and Kadeem Blyden finished with eight.
The Cougars limited Ryken Autry, Marion’s leading scorer on the season, to just seven points – 13 below his average.
Autry pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and grabbed three steals. Lake Pawelek finished with four points.
Trey Blackmore led Cole with 16 points. Silas Livingston chipped in with 15, and Adreall Ray reached double digits with 12.
The loss drops Marion to 0-2 in district play, 15-6 overall. The Bulldogs head to San Antonio to face Great Hearts Northern Oaks on Friday at 8 p.m.
Individual stats from the girls game were not available at press time. It was the first district loss for the Bulldogs, who fall to 3-1 in district play, 10-13 overall.
The Marion girls are idle the rest of the week and continue the 26-3A slate next Tuesday with a 6:30 p.m. home game against Nixon-Smiley.