Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Austin Westlake Holiday Tournament-Tuesday

Coppell  54   A&M Consolidated  39

Coppell goes 12 men deep and they all know their roles.  Scoring was balanced with nobody in double figures.  2012 G Alex Caruso had 14 in the loss.

Duncanville  53  El Paso Montwood 46

This is a great matchup between a larger, more athletic team in Duncanville and a fundamentally sound Montwood team whose sum is greater than the individual parts. To this point in the tournament Duncanville's three point shooting has been limited to Jeremy Atkins.  On the other side of the fence, not only does Montwood constantly cut and run their offense with precision but it's their readiness to RECEIVE the ball when making those cuts that makes them dangerous. 


A 4 point half time lead for D'ville has evaporated as Luke Mergerson picked up a tech late in the 3rd.  With him out of the game Montwood upped their lead to 7 points.  This one was nip and tuck down the stretch as the lead changed hands several times, the last when Senior guard Jeremy Atkins hit his most important three pointer of the game.  He finished with 14 points.  Big Man, Luke Mergerson had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Nobody could hold him.

Seniors Robert Lopez and Gabriel licon had 12 each for the Montwood Rams.  Missed free throws down the stretch killed them and allowed Duncanville to get out and run to end the game.

A&M Consolidated  49 El Paso Socorro  32

After a lackluster effort earlier this morning against a good quality Coppell team, A&M cam out stronger in the afternoon tilt (albeit vs a weak Socorro squad)  Not too many times you see a donut in a quarter of a high school game but after one, it's Consolidated up 12-0.   A&M subbed regularly, going deep into their bench as the coasted to the W.  2012 G Alex Caruso continues to impress as he dropped 22 points, 5 rebounds & 5 steals.
2012 G Alex Caruso


Coppell  77  Austin Westlake 38

This is my second time watching Coppell and other than looking at the roster names/numbers the kids are interchangeable.  Nobody puts up big stats but at the end of the day there's been a butt whuppin'..and Coppell's the one giving it.  After 1 quarter, Coppell leads 13-4. 

Coppell wins this one going away as the Cowboys brought their six shooters & Westlake was firing blanks in a terrible shooting game.  Coppell is dangerous.  They can make shots, they fly around the ball, they rebound well & because they have no real "go to guy" they will be tough to scheme against in district and playoff contests.

Senior Tom Fisher worked hard for the Chaps as he had 9 points, & 2012 G R.J. Rowan had 13 .

Pflugerville  72 Duncanville 50

Both are Panthers, "The Battle of The Villes"..and to top it off a couple of key P'ville guys were late for the bus (Mitchell & Dempsey) so they won't start today's game.  With youngster 2013 T.J. Williams distributing the ball for the first 6 minutes,  P'ville jumped to a 16-7 lead, upping it to 20-11 after one. The half time score is Pflugerville 36 Duncanville 24.  Senior Jordan Major had his best half of the year as he deflected, stole, rebounded and scored the ball for P'ville.
2011 W Cameron Blue

For the most part, both teams exchanged buckets in the quarter and P'ville leads after 3, 55-41.  D'ville has no answer for the superior quickness and multiple perimeter shooting threat the P'ville guards and wings pose. Deon Mitchell has really asserted himself after sitting the 1st quarter.  Who'd a thunk it, that the State's #10 ranked team in 5A would take a solid trouncing from #12 ranked Pflugerville to the point where P'ville was emptying their bech with 3 minutes to play. Impressive wins P'ville has notched include quality wins over "tempo control" programs Austin Bowie, Converse Judson & El Paso Montwood and now over athletic DFW powerhouse, Duncanville. 

Deon Mitchell had 15 points & 5 assists while 2011 W Cameron Blue also added 15 in the win.  Cameron Lenzy had 9 for D'ville and Mergerson had 7 & 6 boards. 

El Paso Montwood   45 ston Westbury  28
Seniors Robert Lopez (left) & Gabriel Licon (right) are two integral parts of this year's version of Montwood.  Licon is one of the better perimeter shooters in the tournament while Lopez always knows where the soft spot is in the high post defense. 

At the half, it's Montwood leading 19-10.   Gabriel Licon has 13 of their points and grabbed 5 boards.  Not too shabby for a 5'10" guard.  Montwood won this one going away in methodical fashion.  Licon finished with 25 to lead all scorers while Robert Lopez had 13. Props go to Senior Ricardo Nova who does a lot of the dirty work. He's not going to fill the stat sheet but he does a little bit of everything it takes for the team to win.

I was speaking with the Montwood staff prior to the game this evening. What a nice group of guys.  It didn't take but a minute to see how much pride they took in the defensive intensity and precision which their Montwood teams operate at, year in and year out.  Coach Tony Harper has 800 plus wins, which is pretty impressive.

One of the most interesting tidbits I acquired in the conversation is that Coach Harper played for The Bear, the legendary Don Haskins.  He was there at UTEP (known as Texas Western at the time) during that 1966 season which was immoratlized in the movie Glory Road.  Apparently, Coach Harper was also a pitcher on the baseball team so after playing 20 basketball games that season he left the basketball team before their historic run head to his field of dreams.