With just more than two weeks remaining in the regular season, three small schools in the state still remain unbeaten on the season in boys basketball.
One you might expect is the
Melissa Cardinals, the state's top-ranked Class 2A team with a 27-0 record, not to mention a strong pedigree for a relatively young program. Behind senior
Zach Helmberger's 18.2 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game, Melissa has basically steamrolled through the season and in the process knocked off some bigger classification schools early on including the likes of Class 5A Allen and Abilene, Class 4A McKinney North, Lake Dallas and Jacksonville and Class 3A ranked powers Kennedale and Lucas Lovejoy.
Fellow senior
Hondo Webb has averaged almost a triple-double for the season at 14.1 ppg., 9.2 rpg., and 7.8 assists per game.
But dig even deeper into the lower school classifications, all the way down to Class A Division II, and you will find No. 4
San Isidro at 28-0 and No. 5
Dodd City at 27-0. San Isidro and Dodd City, you ask. The former is in the Rio Grande Valley while the latter is in far North Texas. Both also happen to play a pretty good brand of basketball.
Coach Roland Garza's Tigers of San Isidro have been the surprise of the season as they shoot for the District 32 championship. The team's closest call came in December in a two-point win over Class 3A Lyford, but the chase will come down to San Isidro and district rival San Perlita, which stands at 22-7 on the season and has one game left against San Isidro.
Lance Shelton's Dodd City Hornets have also impressed throughout the season and knocked off some larger schools along the way, including state-ranked Class 2A Sunnyvale and Class 3A Gainesville. Look for the Hornets to make some serious noise come playoff time out of Region 2.
REVIVAL AT FORT WORTH NORTH SIDEFor years, the boys program at
North Side (Fort Worth) has been one of the most downtrodden in the state. Not anymore.
The Steers, behind second-year coach Carter Dunbar, just won their 10th game of the season, which for a lot of programs would not sound like much. But when you consider that win was the second of the season in district play over Fort Worth Dunbar (Fort Worth Dunbar!), that alone is cause for celebration.
Combine that with the fact the team began this year on a 67-game on-court losing streak and maybe the word celebration is not quite sufficient.
The team went 0-30 last year and Coach Dunbar admitted he was willing to sacrifice a year just to get the team to know and understand the fundamentals of the game. Behind senior
Jesse Priest and junior
Ramon White, the Steers are now 10-15 and 4-9 in district.
ON THE FLIP SIDEWhile North Side is experiencing a reawakening,
Arp has not fallen asleep in some time. The Class 2A Tigers of Brian Keith claimed their 63rd consecutive district win with a grueling 44-43 decision over Frankston, a streak that started in the 2006-07 season. Arp is now 16-7 on the season and 8-0 in District 21.
Frankston has been a perennially successful program and fought back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to make things interesting. The Indians' Clint Fletcher nailed a 3-pointer from beyond midcourt with the clock at zero … but Frankston trailed by four at the time.
SOUTHEAST TEXAS RIVALRY LIVES ONKountze has been the lead dog through the years in its Class 2A district, and for the longest time
East Chambers (Winnie) has been a close second banana. But after losing to Kountze on Jan. 4 by three points, the Buccaneers got revenge with a 70-66 District 24 win to move both teams to 7-1 in league play.
The key for Daniel Andrews' team was second-half rebounding, in which East Chambers owned a 23-10 margin. That and the fact that the Bucs were 18 of 35 from the free throw line while Kountze only went to the charity stripe three times and made two.
COACHING MILESTONESCongratulations are in order to two of the best to coach girls teams in the state.
Georgetown coach Rhonda Farney earned her 900th career victory with a 66-23 decision over Leander. Farney has led the Lady Eagle program since 1988 and coached at Goldthwaite and Ozona prior to that.
Skyline (Dallas) coach Cassandra McCurdy notched career win No. 500 — all at Skyline — with a 70-41 win over Richardson Lake Highlands. McCurdy is in her 24th year at the school.
FINAL SMALL SCHOOL NOTEYou have just got to love the small schools, and we close on this note. A game scheduled last week in District 13A-II between Knox City and Benjamin was moved to Feb.11. The game was originally going to take place on Jan. 27 due to the Knox County Stock Show. But because Benjamin opted not to take Friday off from school like Knox City did, the game could not be played because UIL rules stipulate a team can only play one game on a school night per week. Ah, the power of the Knox County Stock Show.
R.V. Baugus is the publisher of Tex Preps Basketball magazine and texprepsbasketball.com
