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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock Cooper-Wylie basketball doubleheader (88 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Merkel basketball doubleheader (62 images)”
STEPHENVILLE — You know you’re having a good season, when half of your losses to date are to the top-ranked team in the state. As unusual as that may seem, it is presently the case for the Stephenville girls (29-4, 6-2 District 6-4A), who fell for the second straight time this year to Glen Rose, losing 45-23 on Tuesday at SHS.
The game opened a varsity doubleheader, which saw the Glen Rose boys complete a two-game sweep in the nightcap, dropping the Yellow Jackets 56-31.
Despite the loss, the ninth-ranked Stephenville girls retain the No. 2 seed heading into postseason play. The SHS boys (12-17, 2-4) can still lock up a playoff seed with a win over Mineral Wells on Friday.
Photos by Dayton Wood, HubCityPreps.com
LUBBOCK — Trailing 50-48 with 12.8 seconds remaining, the Cooper boys basketball team put the game in Jaelyn Rivera’s hands. And as he has done so many times before, the standout forward came through for the Cougars.
The senior took a pass just beyond the midcourt line with time winding down, dribbled to the 3-point line, shook two defenders and drained the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds remaining to lift Cooper to a dramatic 51-50 road win.
The Wylie boys basketball team entered Tuesday’s home matchup with Lubbock Cooper tied with the Pirates in the win column and needing a victory to maintain its hopes of claiming playoff spot out of District 4-5A.
Fueled by a packed Senior Night crowd, the Bulldogs played like a team on a mission.
After allowing the first bucket of the game, Wylie responded with a 16-2 run and never trailed again in blasting Cooper 75-55.
The win, the Bulldogs’ fourth in their last six games, improved coach Gregg Ruffin’s team to 13-17 overall and 5-6 in District 4-5A — a half-game ahead of the Pirates (16-14, 4-6) and 1½ games ahead of Abilene High (11-16, 3-7) for the fourth spot in the league standings.
The Merkel Lady Badgers entered Tuesday’s regular season finale knowing the stakes were clear: beat Wall and get a seeding game with the Lady Hawks or enter the postseason as the No. 3 seed out of District 6-3A.
Wall, meanwhile, knew that a win locked them into the No. 2 seed and would allow a week of rest before starting the postseason.
In the end, it was the Lady Hawks who used a strong defensive effort, including holding the Lady Badgers scoreless for more than 12 straight minutes in the first half, to take a 37-19 win at Badger Gym.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cisco-Hawley basketball doubleheader (118 images)”
HAWLEY — Hosting Cisco with sole possession of the District 10-2A lead on the line, the Hawley boys basketball team rode a dominant first half to a 65-51 win Monday at Bearcat Gym.
The Bearcats outscored the Loboes 31-13 in the first 16 minutes and stretched their lead to 19 points on two occasions in the third quarter before holding off a furious Cisco rally over the final quarter and a half.
The victory, which followed a 60-41 Cisco win in the girls game, improved the Bearcats (10-4 overall) to 8-1 in 10-2A play, while the Loboes fell to 19-6 on the season and 7-2 in district action. That gives Hawley a one-game lead on CHS and Albany (11-3, 7-2) with three league games remaining.
Eula’s Clayton Gray, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 4, earned the accolade on two fronts. Not only did he post big numbers in consecutive wins over Moran and Rising Star, but he also reached an impressive milestone in the process.
To begin with, the junior guard chalked up 29 points, six boards and four blocks in a win over Moran. He also tallied 43 points, eight boards and four steals in a win over Rising Star.
Six Cooper athletes made their college commitments public Monday during a Signing Day ceremony at Cougar Gym that was rescheduled from last week due to the winter storm that whipped through Abilene and most of the state.
Surrounded by family, friends, teammates and coaches, five CHS football players — quarterback/athlete Chris Warren, receivers Malik Jackson, D’Andre Ralston and Cam Herron and defensive back Michael Ramis — joined girls basketball standout Karrigan Parrott in announcing the universities for which they will continue their athletic careers collegiately.
Warren and Ralston are both headed to Hardin-Simmons, while Ramis will also stay local and compete at McMurry. Herron will join that trio in the Division III ranks at Trinity in San Antonio, while Ramis will play NAIA football for Arizona Christian University.
Parrott, the lone girls athlete to participate in Monday’s ceremony after fellow basketball player Kyla Speights (Texas Wesleyan) and volleyballer Skyla Stark (Hill College) announced commitments earlier, will head east to compete at the next level for DIII Texas-Dallas in Richardson.
With the regular season ending on Tuesday, our annual postseason adventure is about to begin, with playoff action set to begin by next Monday.
Of course, the end of this week will offer multiple tie-breakers, as always, most of which have yet to be determined. But some of those possibilities offer what may be some of the best basketball games we’ve seen this year, as they always do.
At any rate, it’s time to dive into this week’s action, along with a peek at the top games from last week.
While winter weather did a number on the Big Country basketball schedule last week, most scheduled games have finally been played, adding some clarity to the stretch run of our district championship and playoff races.
There’s still plenty of intrigue remaining on the boys side, however, so keep reading for a look at the area’s top matchups this week:
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Peaster-Brock basketball doubleheader (86 images)”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock High-Cooper basketball doubleheader (84 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Sweetwater-Snyder basketball doubleheader (100 images)”
BROCK — What began as an exciting evening for Brock boys and girls basketball on Saturday ended their archrival spoiling most of the potential fun.
Having two opportunities to throw the District 8-3A races into turmoil, Brock was dealt consecutive defeats in a varsity doubleheader, falling 73-30 in the girls game and 50-44 on the boys’ side.
Had the Brock girls won, the Lady Eagles would have forced a first-place tie with Peaster in District 8 with two games to go. Instead, the Lady Greyhounds locked up the district title by creating a two-game lead. They now own a tiebreaker over Brock, having won both meetings with BHS.
The Brock boys faced a similar situation: down a game to Peaster with a chance to grab a piece of first place. They are now trailing the Greyhounds by two games with four games remaining with the tiebreaker in Peaster’s favor. Therefore, Peaster would have to lose three of its final four games to open the door for the Eagles — a highly unlikely scenario for a team which will enter next week at 23-5 and 10-0 in district play.
Facing off with Lubbock High in a game they needed to win to maintain any hope of reaching the playoffs, the Cooper Lady Cougars put forth their best effort of the year Saturday afternoon at Cougar Gym.
Playing with the sense of urgency one might expect in a must-win game, coach Brandon Hudson’s squad scored 45 first-half points and stretched 21-point halftime lead to 30 in the third quarter before closing out a 67-48 Senior Day victory.
The win improved Cooper to 20-13 overall and 4-7 in District 4-5A play, pulling the Lady Cougars within a game of LHS (21-13, 5-6) with one game remaining on the district schedule. That sets up another must-win Tuesday at Lubbock Coronado, and potentially another after that should the fourth-place Lady Westerners fall as expected to top-ranked Lubbock Monterey.
SNYDER — With both the Snyder and Sweetwater boys basketball teams riding waves of momentum into Friday’s District 5-4A showdown, fans packed the Snyder gymnasium expecting to see a thrilling encore to the first matchup between the teams, which saw the Tigers take a 40-38 win on a layup at the buzzer.
Unfortunately for those on the home side of the gym, the Mustangs had different plans.
Coming in on a two-game winning streak after an 0-4 district start, including a 61-60 victory over Levelland on Thursday, Sweetwater stifled Snyder for four full quarters, building a 23-point third-quarter lead on their way to a 40-27 win over their rival.
JAYTON — High school guards who stand 6-foot-4 are uncommon at the Class 6A level. But in Class 1A, sightings of this nature are less frequent than those of Bigfoot.
Yet in Jayton, where the No. 2-ranked Class 1A Jaybirds are currently 21-1, there is ample size to go around, including at the point guard spot where 6-foot-4 senior Nathaniel Williams is currently running the Jayton offense. And this isn’t out of necessity due to a lack of options — he’s simply that good.
Add the fact that Jayton is already blessed with an abundance of height, featuring 6-5 forward Caleb Beck and 6-4 forward Griff Reel, and Williams is freed up to do what he does best — work the perimeter, drive and score, dish, or shoot from beyond the arc.
Entering this week’s games, the senior was averaging 16.5 points, 5.2 boards and 4.1 assists. He’s shooting an eye-popping 59.8 percent from the floor, including a red-hot 44.7-percent tally from 3-point range.
Because of the winter storm that hit the state earlier this week, National Signing Day came and went without fanfare this year. But with a clear weather forecast on Friday, five Abilene High football players were celebrated for the college decisions they made official with their Letters of Intent on Wednesday.
Three Eagles defensive backs — safety Noah Hatcher (Midwestern State) and cornerbacks Kwame Collins and Jayson Henley (both Angelo State) — all signed to play scholarship football at the Division II level, while linebacker Kenneth Johnson (McMurry) and receiver Tim Outlaw (Hardin-Simmons) committed to play Division III football locally.
That group was supported by family, friends, coaches and teammates during Signing Day ceremony at the AHS fieldhouse that served as an opportunity to show younger players in the Eagles football program what can happen with hard work and dedication.
With Signing Day 2023 in the books, the Big Country will be placing several of its athletes on college campuses across the country, including multiple Division I signees.
Headlining this year’s group are Jim Ned lineman Gage Stanaland, who has inked a Letter of Intent with Oklahoma State University and Breckenridge defensive lineman-fullback Jerry Lawson, who will be playing football right here in the Big Country with Abilene Christian University. Lawson is one of three Breckenridge athletes who will be heading to DI institutions, the others being Sean Cooksey and Chase Lehr.
Stanaland, a 6-foot-5, 290-pounder, originally committed to Navy and received offers from UTEP, New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. Texas A&M and Baylor were showing interest but never offered. However, Oklahoma State suddenly entered the pursuit late in the game and convinced him to become a Cowboy.
It’s a big weekend for Isabella Cox and the Coahoma girls basketball team.
The Bulldogettes need to spring a couple upsets starting Friday night against Wall and following with Merkel the next day to have a chance at the postseason.
A year after leading Coahoma to its first district title since 2008, Cox and the Bulldogettes have faced more than their fair share of adversity this winter.
UIL realignment landed Coahoma into a district with three ranked teams in No. 2 Jim Ned, No. 14 Wall and No. 19 Merkel. To make matters more challenging, Cox sprained her ankle and was forced to miss multiple district games.
Photos courtesy of Lee Scott
The Snyder boys basketball season, seemingly stuck in free-fall mode as recently as a month ago, now has the Tiger faithful thinking this could be a team that makes some noise in the playoffs.
Following a 10-point loss to Shallowater on Jan. 6, Coach Lee Scott’s squad had wrapped up the pre-district portion of the season with a 5-15 record. With District 5-4A play looming on the horizon, not even a good number of “moral victories” mixed among the defeats foretold what would happen next.
Snyder took down Big Spring by 11 points and Sweetwater by two. District favorite Lubbock Estacado slowed the momentum by beating the Tigers 51-42, but Snyder rebounded, both literally and figuratively, by winning its next two district games, 44-36 over San Angelo Lake View and 49-43 over Levelland.
A second win over Big Spring on Thursday (47-34) has the 5-1 Tigers in second place behind Estacado, and Scott has his team thinking that even the powerful Matadors aren’t invincible.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock Coronado-Abilene High boys basketball (48 images)”
Playing Lubbock Coronado in a game delayed two days by inclement weather, the Abilene High boys basketball team saw a sluggish start doom its hopes of a District 4-5A upset Thursday in a 68-54 loss at Eagle Gym.
The Eagles trailed 9-2 less than three minutes into the game and never fully recovered in falling to 11-15 overall and 3-6 in league play.
After the Mustangs’ lead reached a game-high 21 points (37-16) late in the second quarter, AHS rallied to pull within 10 in the third. But that was as close as coach Justin Reese’s squad would get as Coronado pushed its lead back to 20 points by the 1:27 mark of the third and was never threatened again.
Braxton Smith spent the fall as a dynamic receiver and defensive back for Coleman’s football team.
But from a young age, Smith’s favorite sport has been basketball.
“Basketball has always been my happy place,” Smith said. “The success we had in football has made me want to keep pushing and striving to become better and better because settling for less is not an option.”
Below are the current season statistical leaders for Big Country girls basketball through Feb. 2.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the regular season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
Below are the current season statistical leaders for Big Country boys basketball through Feb. 2.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the regular season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
With Eula storming through District 13-1A play with a 7-0 record (and a 21-9 mark overall), the 16th-ranked Lady Pirates are a living testament to the notion that, sometimes, Plan B can come in pretty handy.
Consider that when the year started, coach Josh Fostel was blessed with a nice mix of size and athleticism. The team had the potential to score inside and outside, and, because the coach’s name is Fostel, everyone who has followed Eula basketball knows that it was going to play solid defense.
Then the season started, and “size” suffered a knock-down blow.
Photos by Lily Cormack
GORDON — A year ago, the Gordon boys basketball team was in the midst of a mediocre campaign that finished with an 11-12 record and a 3-9 mark in district.
So when graduation clobbered the Longhorns over the offseason, it was logical for most to assume that Gordon was about to endure a period of rebuilding. And only heaven would know how long such a project would take.
In actuality, it took less than a year.