12:57 AM CST on Wednesday, January 19, 2005
By MONIQUE WALKER / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO – When Plano's boys basketball team plays, it is usually junior Joseph Fulce who gets the attention. But on Tuesday it was Fulce's teammates who took over.

Plano had four players in double figures en route to a 66-59 victory against Plano East in a District 8-5A game. It was the first district loss for Plano East (19-5, 5-1).

The Wildcats (18-4, 5-1) were led by Mark Foster with 15 points. Fulce entered Tuesday's game averaging 17.6 points, but he was held to 10 points Tuesday. He contributed in other ways while his teammates found ways to score.

"We're not a one-headed monster," Plano coach Tom Inman said. "We have a lot of good players on this team that stepped up tonight."

The matchup brought out a crowd that filled both sides of Plano's gymnasium. The first quarter ended in a 14-14 tie.

In the fourth quarter, Plano East was down, 52-46, and began its comeback behind senior forward Chris Littell.

Littell drained a 3-pointer with 3:50 left to cut Plano's lead to 55-53. Littell scored 10 points in the quarter, including three 3-pointers. He finished with a team-high 17 points.

Plano East missed out on opportunities at the free throw line. Plano East converted four of 12 free throws. Plano converted 14 of 23 free throws.

Eric Zastoupil grabbed the rebound after a missed free throw and scored to expand Plano's lead to 63-57 with 37.9 seconds remaining.

Zastoupil wound up with 13 points. Teammate Ryan Manack added 12.

Inman said it was a key win for his group in the first half of the district schedule.

"If I could think of a bigger adjective than huge, I would use it because this guarantees us at least a split with Plano East in the event that we need it at the end of the season," Inman said.