Yates (Houston), the runaway record-setting train that has cashed in the last two Class 4A state championships, will not be sizing up rings for a three-peat after the Lions were beaten by
La Marque, 102-91, in an area round thriller played at Texas Southern University.
The win for La Marque was sweet revenge after the Cougars lost to Yates in last year's regional final. La Marque, which improved to 24-4, was led by University of Texas signee
Julien Lewis, who drilled five of his first six shots and had 12 points in the first quarter.
The fast start was enough to give La Marque a 60-41 halftime lead, but when Yates outscored the Cougars 26-15 in the third quarter, it looked like the Lions might be able to pull it out.
La Marque settled down after getting a pep talk from coach Cedric Mason about not giving over a lead, something that plagued the Cougars earlier in a district showdown against Galveston Ball.
Settle down the Cougars did, and the reward is a berth in the state quarterfinals while a young Yates squad eagerly anticipates next year when its players will be another year experienced and comfortable with the playoff intensity gained this season.
MaxPreps Texas boys basketball playoff bracketsSPECIAL DELIVERY INDEEDThis story has book deal written all over it. The
Lipan Lady Indians knocked off Roby in a Class A Division II Region 2 regional semifinal on Friday and would come back on Saturday to capture the regional final with a 45-41 win over Newcastle.
So far, so plain. But here are the circumstances surrounding what happened between the semifinal and the final.
Seems that Lipan coach Amber Branson was pregnant and expecting a baby with a due date of March 5. But on Friday morning of the tournament that took place at Moody Coliseum on the campus of Abilene Christian University, Branson experienced contractions.
The coach was on the bench for her team's win over Roby, and within three hours after the contest was in labor at Abilene Regional Medical Center, where she gave birth at 10:18 p.m. to daughter Leslie Telese.
Saturday's tip in the final came at 2 p.m. and guess who paced (well, perhaps more gingerly than normal) the sideline for Lipan? Correct, none other than new mom Amber Branson.
This time, she watched as her team went on an incredible 21-2 run for the comeback win. With an OK from doctors to be on the sideline both before and after the child's birth, Branson said there was no way she couldn't be with her team.
After the win, Branson met her team for a victory dinner before the team met the coach back at the hospital to see the 8 pound, 7 ounce bundle of joy.
MaxPreps Texas girls basketball playoff bracketsCENTEX FINALE GOES TO GEORGETOWN GIRLSGeorgetown-Pflugerville is always a dynamic District 15-5A girls rivalry, and the stakes were even higher for the third meeting of the season between the teams in the Class 5A Region 2 regional final. Granted,
Georgetown had won the season's first two meetings, but knocking off a talented 30-6 Pflugerville team was anything but a given.
LSU-bound
Krystal Forthan popped home 22 points and Emily Johnson added a fourth-quarter burst to help push the Lady Eagles to a 68-56 win and Georgetown's first trip to the state tournament since 2003.
The Lady Panthers quickly fell behind 11-0, but settled down and at halftime trailed 32-24. Pflugerville came within two points twice in the third period but could never get over the hump.
Georgetown improved to 32-3 with the win. University of Texas-bound
Nneka Enemkpali led Pflugerville with 28 points.
VALENTINE HAS FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE YEARValentine has the smallest enrollment of a high school playing UIL basketball in Texas, but the Pirates' boys team still made its first playoff appearance in more than a decade before falling in the area round to Ira, 75-35.
When we say small enrollment, we mean incredibly small, as the school lists an enrollment of 16. Coach Brent McWilliams said that seven boys are enrolled in the school and six of them play for the basketball team. These are definitely players to be recognized, so take a bow Kyle Kerley, Demetrio Navarrete, Daniel Garnsey, Aaron Morton, Dillard Babb and Daniel Koch.
DIFFERENT ENDS OF THE SPECTRUMJoe Lombard will take his
Canyon Lady Eagles to Austin for the Class 4A state tournament. This will be the legendary coach's 20th trip to the tournament while coaching at Canyon and at Nazareth before that. This year's team is an unblemished 36-0 and the win in the regional final, a tense 42-40 overtime triumph over Plainview, put Lombard an unheard-of 1,000 games over .500 for his coaching career that now stands at 1,098-98.
Meanwhile, the
Austin boys team deserves applause after gaining its first playoff win in half a century after beating Leander, 67-41, in the bi-district round. (The streak was extended with a 51-43 area round win over Klein.)
R.V. Baugus is the publisher of Tex Preps Basketball magazine and texprepsbasketball.com.
