By R.V. Baugus, www.texprepsbasketball.com
Special to MaxPreps.com
While the boys begin bi-district playoff action this week, the girls are already two rounds in and preparing for regional quarterfinal action. Will the favorites hold serve? Are there any upstarts to watch for? Here is our take on the “second season” of basketball action in Texas.
Talk girls and you naturally talk Brittney Griner, the 6-foot-8, Baylor-bound post at Houston Nimitz. Before she takes her talents to the Brazos, Griner and Nimitz are poised for a deep run and what they hope will be a Class 5A state championship.
The No. 1 team in the state in the TABC/Tex Preps Basketball rankings toyed with Houston Chavez (53-32) and Houston Stratford (69-30) in the first two playoff games. Next up is formidable Katy Cinco Ranch. Coach Eric Bartlett’s team has been a Houston-area power for years thanks to the Gilbreath sisters and would love nothing more than to spoil the Cougars’ playoff run.
Should Nimitz prevail, it could set up a juicy regional semifinal contest against 6-3 Kelsey Bone and Fort Bend Dulles, the state’s No. 4 team which has run roughshod over playoff opponents Clute Brazoswood (71-26) and Baytown Lee (75-42).
Keep an eye in Region II on Cy-Fair, a defending champion riding the shoulders of state tournament-tested Chiney Ogwumike. Ogwumike teamed with her sister – 2008 MaxPreps National Player of the Year Nneka Ogwumike – to bring a title to Cy-Fair a year ago.
Mansfield Timberview and Arlington Seguin have been waging war all year and ended up state No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. In addition to being community neighbors, both are in Region I, which also includes No. 3 Canyon and Joe Lombard. Seguin and Canyon could meet up later in the week in the semis if they prevail over Granbury and Wolfforth Frenship.
Timberview, meanwhile, has its own work cut out in the lower region bracket. First comes a contest against athletic Fort Worth Dunbar and then possibly another talented team in No. 7 Amarillo Palo Duro.
Boys prep For playoffs
With the boys beginning bi-district play this week, many of the classifications are wide open. Houston Strake Jesuit was the state’s only unbeaten team at 32-0 and stands tall as the No. 1 team in Class 5A. Strake will be tested by a playoff field long on tournament experience, including the teams immediately beneath them in the state rankings in San Antonio Madison, Duncanville, North Crowley, Cedar Hill and Pflugerville.
Cedar Hill and Duncanville met last Friday for the third time this year with the occasion being to seed the No. 1 team out of District 7-5A. Cedar Hill got the win at SMU’s Moody Coliseum.
Dallas Carter continued its late-season rampage and tossed aside Class 5A No. 19 DeSoto in another warm-up game. Houston Yates has been stacking up a number of 100-point games. Like Carter, the Lions are peaking at just the right time.
Wheatley and Jones are other representatives out of the Houston ISD who finished in the state’s top 10 and will be a load to handle.
News And Notes
Kermit’s Austin Grubbs recorded a quadruple-double last Tuesday in the Yellow Jackets’ 84-63 warm-up win over Fort Davis. Grubbs notched 13 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 13 steals in the team’s 19th consecutive win. Kermit ended the Class 2A regular season at 24-4.
Going across the state, the Texarkana Pleasant Grove boys have been one of the year’s true success stories out of Class 3A. The team finished 27-6, easily surpassing the school’s previous high-water mark of 20 wins. The team also enjoyed its first-ever TABC/Tex Preps Basketball ranking, most recently at No. 17.
This year’s team got off to a slow start with four early losses while the team awaited many football players to finish their successful season and move to the court. When that happened the team went 26-2.
In Memoriam: Scott Talton
Sympathy is extended to the family of Scott Talton, who passed away last Thursday at age 59. Talton retired from coaching following the 2007-08 season after leading Pasadena Dobie for 27 years and compiling a record of 500-391 with 15 playoff appearances. At this report the cause of death is unknown and an autopsy will be performed. Coach Talton is survived by his wife, Vicki, and son, Scott Jr.
R.V. Baugus is the Publisher of Tex Preps Basketball magazine and www.texprepsbasketball.com
