TAPPS 5A Playoffs

Houston St. Thomas 51  Argyle Liberty Christian 43  (2 OT)
St. Thomas sports a big three in the Class of 2012; all Division One prospects in 6'9" P Jeremy King, 6'0" G Chase Brogna & 6'3" G Christian Sanders while Argyle had no players with that kind of name recognition.  Something happened though as the visitors from the DFW area didn't seem to be aware of that.  Proving that there isn't always a connect between having next level prospects and gutty, blue collar high school players it took double overtime before The Eagles finally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

This was a game of limited scoring opportunities as both teams played a 2-3 zone and Argyle was in no hurry to just jack up shots when they had their offensive possessions.  I was impressed with the disciple displayed by Liberty Christian and their star player, Senior Eric Heidelmann.  He finished with 21 points & 6 rebounds including five buckets from behind the three point line.  As the first overtime wound down it was looking bleak for S.t Thomas until Christian Sanders hit a clutch three pointer with about a minute left in the game. St. Thomas are usually a sharp shooting bunch bit that was one of only three shots to go down from beyond the arc.  Credit Argyle Liberty for playing hardnosed D. 

2012 Chrisitan Sanders helped St. Thomas avoid the upset

In the second overtime, The Eagles switched up defenses and began to scramble, pressuring the ball.  It paid off bg time as Chase Brogna had steals on 3 possessions and salted away 4 free throws to ice the game.  Sanders led with 17 points with 9 of them coming in the OT sessions.  Brogna had 11 & King had 9 points & 7 rebounds.  They will meet Austin St. Michael's next Friday on their home court in what should be a high scroing affair in the TAPPS 5A Regional Final.

Austin St. Michael's  60  El Paso Cathedral 49

As he's done in 90% of St. Michael's games Jake Kocher led the Crusaders to the win

St. Michael's was led by Senior G Jake Kocher (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) who had 20 points and Senior Austin Burch with 13 points.  Kocher was Austin's leading scorer for the 2nd year in a row.  As he rounds out his prep career he has scored in excess of 2700 points in three season at the varsity level.