Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Texas High School Playoffs: Tuesday, February 22nd BRACKET BUSTERS

I received a lot of texts this morning asking where my playoff recaps were.  Sorry, blame my 5 month old grandson, Julian as I was on house duty being grandpa this morning.  :-)  Here goes:
I'm sure most of you who read the D1 Nation Prep Report are basketball junkies like me.  The culmination of the Texas High School season is our tournament.  64 teams in 4A & 64 teams in 5A.  All teams hopeful to get to the Big Dance in Austin and to win a State Title on March 12th.  And like it's big brother, the NCAA Tournament there are always a few Cinderella's.  This year's first round has more than it's share.

San Antonio MacArthur 56  Converse Judson 54 (OT)
MacArthur might not appreciate being put in the Cinderella category but anytime a perennial playoff team like Judson gets beat it takes a special effort.  In a back and forth affair, it was 2012 G Matt Gramling who hit the winning laup with a few seconds left in OT to seal the deal.  He had 16 points to lead the Brahmas to the second round vs San Antonio Stevens.  Judson Senior Cameron Griffin gave his best effort, scoring 25 in the loss.  2012 Jordan pratt added 15 for Mac.
Gramling hits the game winner in OT!
Round Rock McNeil 66  Austin Akins 53
Akins had such high expectations coming into this season.  It's hard to bet against a HS team with two D1 signees in Malcom Canada (Central Arkansas) & Yolonzo Moore (Hartford) but somebody forgot to give McNeil Senior Blair Williams and his Mavs the memo.  He had 24 points to lead all scorers.  Canada had 19 for Akins in the loss.
McNeil's Blair Williams scored 24 and was tough on the boards in the upset win over Akins
Arlington Seguin 82  Killeen 77
28 points, 20 rebounds & 5 blocks. Those were Senior Ta'Shawn Thomas' numbers and stats in his last game as a Killeen Runnin' Roo.  The University of Houston signee tried to rally his troops who trailed by as many as 18.  They held a brief lead with less than 5 minutes to play but their #7 State Ranking went out the window to a 4th seeded team from the Metroplex.
It's on the the University of Houston for the talented Thomas
Waxahachie  67  Pflugerville Hendrickson  63
Hendrickson lost a 9 point 4th quarter lead caused by their inability to hit free throws down the stretch.

Killeen Ellison 67  Mesquite Horn 45
Seniors Devonte Brown (Indiana State) & Jaleel Williams led the Eagles to their impressive win by scoring 21 & 18 respectively.
Williams is amping up his game for the playoffs

Killeen Harker Heights 65  Longview  48
Heights dominated this game as Senior Royce O'Neale continues to put up mad double doubles.  He had 19 points & 21 rebounds to keep the Knights rolling.

Desoto 58  College Station A&M Consolidated 38
#4 ranked Desoto rolled to the win.  2012 G Alex Caruso led Consolidated with 18 points including a pair of scintillating fastbreak dunks but he had little support from the rest of the team.
Alex Caruso will pass up many of Texas' bigger name guards in the Class of 2012
Bryan 68  Mesquite 64
Bryan's first lead of the second half came with only 26 seconds left to play.  A 12-3 run fueled by 2012 G J. Mychal Reese got the Vikings over the top.  Reese, one of the country's top guards had 34 points, including 12 in the 4th quarter.
Stepping up when it counts is nothing new to Bryan High's J. Mychal Reese.  He's been doin it on the National stage since he was 10 years old.

Kerrville Tivy 59  Kyle Lehman 48
Senior Deron Belford had 22 points and frosh Matt Perry dropped 12 as the Antlers stopped Lehman.
Freshman Matt Perry is following in his two older brothers footsteps at Kerrville Tivy

Austin LBJ 61  Cedar Park Vista Ridge 38
Senior G Robert Lee had 18 and Senior P David Weathers chipped in with 15 in the blowout win for the Jaguars.
Senior David Weathers is a force for Austin LBJ

Pflugerville 76  Austin Anderson 60
The Trojans hung tough for almost 3 quarters, but Pflugerville was too deep.  2011 W Cameron Blue had 23 points and 2011 G Deon Mitchell (Northern Iowa) ran the show and dropped 20 for the Panthers.
Mitchell has the Panthers riding high with a #17 National Ranking.

Marble Falls 66  Austin Lanier 61
Playing without their big man, 2011 Shane Minnick, Marble Falls used a 4th quarter comeback behind Senior David Morgan's 20 points.

Bastrop 86  Red Oak 64
The Senior backcourt of Josiah Monroe (Texas-San Antonio-football) who had 27 & Jordan Roach (South Alabama) with 21 was too much for Red Oak to handle.
Monroe, & Bastrop have one of the toughest backcourts in the State.

Austin McCallum 84  Dripping Springs 56
The Knights used balanced scoring to put Drip away easily.

San Antonio Clark 80  Corpus Christi Carroll 71
Clark had 5 players in double figures led by 2012 G Nikko Maxwell's 18 & 2012 G Adam Perez with 14.

San Antonio Churchill 89  Seguin 56
2011 F Brig Gerlich finished his prep basketball career with 23 points.  Now it's on to baseball for the talented 3 sport star.  In the meantime, Churchill dominated inside and out with five players in double figures including Clark Lammert (17), Connor Lammert (16), Scott Mammel (11), Jacob Woods (11) & Derek Salas (10).

San Antonio Reagan 83  New Braunfels 70
Max Yon (Air Force) had 21 & tre Demps (Northwestern) added 19 for the Rattlers.  2012 W Kyle Hittle had 27 in the loss for the Unicorns.
Soon, Max Yon will be flying high at Air Force, but he's got work to do at Reagan first
New Braunfels Canyon 47  Uvalde 26
Canyon was just too big inside as 2012 P 6'10" Andrew Poulter had 15 to lead the Cougars.  Jeremy Espinoza was held to just 12 points, almost 18 below his season average.
Big Andrew Poulter's offense is coming around for Canyon