Thirty-two year coaching veteran Tommy Aldridge of Longview joined a most exclusive club over the past weekend when his girls basketball team beat Hallsville, 66-57, to give the coach his 900th career win, making Aldridge the 11th high school basketball coach in the United States to have that many victories.
Aldridge has spent his 32 years with the Lady Lobos and overall now stands at 900-179. Longview is 22-4, 6-0 this year in District 13-4A, although the last win did not come so easily. Tiana Poole scored 28 points in the win, and afterwards the coach enjoyed receiving a plaque from Longview ISD Director of Extracurricular Activities Pat Collins, and then what resembled something from a Harlem Globetrotters routine when a bucket of confetti was dumped on him.
This is a special year for milestone wins amongst East Texas coaches, as Bullard Brook Hill boys coach Wally Dawkins earlier earned win No. 600 while Brook Hill girls coach Curtis Corley notched his 700th win.
Deion Houston, Duncanville
File photo by Jim Redman
District 7-5A weeds out the weak
It doesn’t matter whether we are talking boys or girls basketball when the conversation turns to District 7-5A in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. When you have Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Irving and Irving MacArthur on the boys side and Duncanville, Cedar Hill and MacArthur on the girls side, you are going to get some bruising contests. That doesn’t even count before the last realignment when DeSoto was also in the mix.
The most recent installment of nerve-wracking ball played out of this district came last weekend when MacArthur’s girls were upset by Cedar Hill, 64-58, handing the Cardinals their first loss of the season (27-1, 5-1).
Nationally-ranked MacArthur has been untouchable behind Baylor commit Odyssey Sims and dynamic sophomore Alexis Jones, but Cedar Hill (18-4, 6-0) had a fourth-quarter spurt to take the home win. Braylah Blakely was huge in the win with a school-record 24 rebounds, while Briah Blakely led the scoring effort with 20 points.
Top teams test each other
Aside from the fact that the games are meaningful and count toward who will win district championships, another fun thing about district play is that a number of schools ranked in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches/Tex Preps Basketball Magazine state rankings do battle with each other.
It is interesting that so many districts have multiple schools placed in the rankings. Several positives come out of this, including the fact that schools can bank on there being some close games played, which can only help come playoff time when the stakes are higher and the games closer. Another is that it gives teams an opportunity to become battle-tested when playing on the road in often hostile environments. Companies like Alka-Seltzer probably also like it because it spikes their sales from statewide coaches following these contests.
Having said all of that, the first noteworthy score comes with one of the teams not ranked, but likely deserving of consideration. In the Valley, No. 5 Laredo United’s boys (23-2, 5-0) knocked off perennial district stalwart Laredo Alexander (18-3, 4-1), 58-47 in the first meeting between the schools.
Out of the Houston Independent School District in Class 4A (with that lead-in you are waiting on us to say that Houston Yates was upset, right?), 14th-ranked Houston Waltrip fell to 15-5 after losing to No. 1 Yates (you knew better!), 103-68, the 11th time this year the Lions have topped 100 points. Yates is now 19-0.
Staying in Class 4A and the Greater Houston area, No. 3 La Marque’s Cougars (23-2) proved too much for No. 11 Friendswood (18-6) to handle with a 60-43 decision.
In Class 3A boys, a pair of games took place involving Top 25 clubs. No. 15 Sweeny’s Bulldogs improved to 18-2 by topping rival Stafford, 65-55. Stafford sits at No. 20 and saw its record drop to 9-10, although many of the losses have come to schools from larger classifications.
Elsewhere, No. 19 Mexia upset No. 7 Lorena, 79-68. Sophomore sensation D.J. Weathers scored 36 points in the win, including a ridiculous eight 3-pointers.
Moving West and moving down to Class 2A, one of the state’s best rivalries in any sport took place in 7-2A when Wall’s Hawks improved to 23-0, 1-0 by beating Tuscola Jim Ned (20-4, 0-1), 71-55. Justin Walling notched 26 points and torched the nets with five 3-pointers in the win.
In Class A Division I, it was No. 23 Eula also stealing an upset over No. 9 Bronte, 43-34. Eula moves to 19-5, 4-0 on the season while Bronte slips to 13-4, 3-1.
R.V. Baugus is the publisher of Tex Preps Basketball magazine and www.texprepsbasketball.com.
