Duncanville boys keep Mansfield Timberview at bay

By Josh Bowe

Special to the Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON -- In the third quarter of Duncanville's game against Mansfield Timberview on Friday night, everything that could go wrong for coach Danny Henderson seemingly did.

His starting point guard got into foul trouble, and then his backup point guard had to leave the game with a respiratory problem. The Panthers watched their double-digit halftime lead shrink to just two points.

"We were without a point guard for almost the whole third quarter," Henderson said. "We knew they were going to turn up the pressure and we survived it."

Duncanville recovered to top Timberview 66-56 at Timberview High School. The victory broke a tie between the teams and gave the Panthers (20-7, 4-3) fourth place as the first half of District 7-5A play concluded.

With Duncanville not having a true point guard on the floor for the majority of the third quarter, Timberview (20-5, 3-4) managed to climb out of a 31-16 halftime hole by using a full-court press. Junior guard Alex Robinson and senior guard J.V. Long scored 10 of Timberview's 19 points in the quarter to cut the lead to 37-35 with 1:50 left in the third.

Duncanville answered with eight consecutive points to push its lead to 45-35.

With 6:24 left in the fourth, Panthers senior guard Jerami Grace raced to the basket and was fouled going in for a layup. The Wolves then were called for a technical, and Grace hit four consecutive free throws to push Duncanville's lead to 51-39.

Timberview cut the lead to 57-54 with less than three minutes left, but Duncanville then held Timberview scoreless for the next two minutes.

Grace scored nine of his team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter for Duncanville. Long and Robinson each had 17 for Timberview.

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