02:31 AM CST on Tuesday, January 25, 2005
By C. ANTHONY MOSSER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

PLANO – Although Plano has four of its remaining seven District 8-5A boys basketball games at home, it will be important for the Wildcats to excel on the road in the second half of the season.

Plano (19-4, 6-1) finished the first half of district play tied for the lead with Plano East. Those two teams have a one-game lead on Allen and are two games ahead of Plano West.

Plano plays all three of those playoff contenders on the road during the second half of district play, which starts tonight at Plano West.

"Hopefully that's where playing so many pre-district games on the road will be an advantage for us," said Plano coach Tom Inman, whose team had only two of its first 13 games at home. "But when you know the value of the game going in it doesn't make that big a difference if you're playing home or on the road."

Still, the road games are a concern. Plano went 2-1 against the three playoff contenders at home the first half of district and last season it suffered late season road losses to Plano East and Allen.

Plano bounced back from a 40-38 loss to Allen a week ago Friday by defeating Plano East and The Colony last week.

Plano showed balance in its 66-59 win over Plano East with all five starters scoring in double figures. Mark Foster led the way with 15 points. In its 49-41 win at The Colony on Friday, 6-6 junior Joseph Fulce led the way with 24 points. Fulce is Plano's leading scorer at 17.2 points per game. All five starters – Fulce, Foster, Eric Zastoupil, Travis Vance and Brandon Ware – have been Plano's leading scorer in at least one game this season.

"We've won games when Joe has scored 8, 10 and 12 points and we've won games when Joe has scored 24," Inman said. "We don't depend on him to do it every night. We've got four or five [players] that are capable of scoring double figures any night and the balance between our interior and perimeter scoring has been very, very good. It's really an unselfish team."

Another key to Plano's success has been its ability to get to the free throw line. Plano is shooting 69.2 percent. What's more, it has made more free throws (343) than its opponents have shot (276). The free throw disparity hasn't been as drastic in district where Plano is 73-of-114 while its opponents are 40-of-71.

"That's probably a product of the way we play," Inman said. "We go to the basket and we don't settle for a lot of jump shots. Also, we haven't committed many of dumb fouls."

Briefly ...

Lawrence Mann, Plano's 6-3, junior forward/center, is questionable for tonight's game with Plano West because of an upper respiratory infection. ... Plano is 16-1 in games in which it has scored 50 or more points. ... Greg Boyer, a senior guard has seen increasing playing time as the season has progressed. Coach Tom Inman likes the defensive intensity Boyer brings, and he gives Plano another ball-handler against pressure defense. ... Plano and its opponents are shooting more than 30 percent from 3-point range this season, but there is large disparity in the shots taken. Plano is 45-of-149 from 3-point range (30.2 percent). Its opponents are 137-444 (30.9 percent).