An exhausted Tyrik Price played hard until the final whistle, but in the end it wasn’t enough for the injury-plagued Paschal Panthers.

The junior shooting guard led the Panthers with 16 points and 8 rebounds Tuesday night as Arlington Martin (9-16, 7-5 Dist.4-6A) beat Paschal (10-14, 3-9) 58-38.

Price had 12 of his points in the second half, and junior point guard Dylan Thomas added 15 for the game. However, the Panthers got only 7 points from the rest of the team.

“Everybody plays their role and those two are supposed to score the basketball,“ Paschal head coach David Watson said. “We were missing some key guys tonight who normally score for us.”

Among the regular players missing were backup junior point guard Walter Crutcher, junior shooting guard Zach Shaw and senior shooting guard Arman Garnett.

“Injuries. Illness. It all seemed to come at one time for us,” Watson said.

Paschal hung in the game for a while, trailing 21-18 at half, and opened the second half on a 7-0 run. However, Martin finished the third quarter on a 17-0 run to blow the game open.

Senior shooting guards Andrew Dotson and Victor Lewis led the way for the Warriors. Dotson had 24 points and made 7 of 8 free throws while Lewis finished with 15 points and 6 boards. The two played tough defense to cause 15 turnovers by the Panthers.

“They played at such a fast pace and forced us to make decisions under pressure,” Watson said. “As my guys got tired they started to make mistakes.”

The night didn’t end well for the already short-handed Panthers. Junior center Dane Cobb left the game in the fourth quarter with a high ankle sprain.

Watson said his team needs to get healthy but liked the intensity his players had to begin the game. 

“We showed in the first half what we can do, but we just need some more bodies,” Watson said. “We’ll hopefully have some more players on Friday to give it another shot.” 

Friday night is Senior Night for the Paschal Panthers. Tipoff against Arlington Bowie is set for 7:30 p.m.