Schools 
Herald/TJ MAXWELL Shoemaker senior Chris Runnels is fouled from behind by Temple senior Deshyle Richards in the first half of their District 12-5A contest Tuesday at Shoemaker.After a bad week of practice and a bad first half against Temple, Chris Runnels knew it fell to him to reverse the funk.
Runnels, Shoemaker's only starting senior, scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half and the Grey Wolves overcame a lackadaisical first half to sweep the Wildcats, 64-53 and take one step closer to their first playoff trip three years.
"We weren't playing hard (in the first half), but most of our points were going to come from our posts if we finish, but we weren't finishing," Runnels said. "We weren't going up strong enough, just like in practice, we probably weren't going strong enough."
Runnels scored seven in the third quarter to give the Grey Wolves (18-10, 6-4 12-5A) their first substantial lead of the game and Andre Halliburton and Shane Shones combined for 13 in the fourth quarter to help Shoemaker pull away from the Wildcats.
"I thought Andre gave us a spark defensively; I thought Chris started to make a few layups because we so many in the first half," Shoemaker coach Marc Minatrea said. "Really, we stressed that everyone do what they're capable of doing, play hard and do what you're capable of doing. A few guys did that as the second half went on and it showed on the scoreboard."
Jones scored 12 and Halliburton scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter. Runnels finished with 15 rebounds to go along with his 20 points and Jose Roman, nursing a thumb injury, finished with 14 rebounds and six points.
Temple led 28-24 at halftime taking half as many shots as the Grey Wolves. Shoemaker was 8 of 33 from the field while the Wildcats were 8 of 18. The Grey Wolves had 18 offensive rebounds in the first half, but scored just nine points from those while Temple was 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, including 3-of-3 in the first quarter.
Jonathan Sulak led Temple with 15 points. Roddric Dodd scored 14 and Avery Polchinski added 10 for the Wildcats, who led by as many as eight in the first half.
"(Minatrea) said we weren't practicing hard, so we just came out and tried to play hard within ourselves and it showed on the court, not the first half, but the second half we did way better, like we should have," Jones said.
Dodd hit a 3 for the Wildcats coming out of halftime, but the Grey Wolves used a 13-4 run, getting three-point plays from Runnels and Rendard Thomas, to take a 37-35 lead on Runnels' and-one conversion with 2:37 left in the third.
Shoemaker then hit four of its first five field goals and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to go up 53-44 on Halliburton's 3 with 4:52 left.
Shoemaker plays at Copperas Cove on Friday looking to avenge an earlier loss to the Bulldawgs and bolster its chances of clinching a playoff spot for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
"We told them, 'If you can't get up for Friday night's game at Cove, when they beat you on your home floor, when you've got a chance to get in the playoffs with four games, left," Minatrea said, "if that doesn't fire you up and motivate you to practice hard, I don't know what does.'"
