Nelson boys beat Denton, earn second place in 5-4A basketball

By Greg Bogomol

Special to the Star-Telegram

TROPHY — Trophy Club Nelson used a 25-4 run over the last eight minutes to claim District 5-4A’s second seed with a 67-51 victory over Denton. Denton led 47-42 with 3:50 left in the third quarter following a 3-pointer by Ryan Daniels, but the Broncos managed to hit just one of their last 18 shots. Denton (15-15, 11-3) scored just 15 points in the second half. The Broncos' Michael Jackson led with 19 points, four in the second half. Nelson (26-5, 12-2) was able to hang in the game early and then put it away late. Free throws was key, too. The Bobcats made 20 of 21 from the line. Keyunta Watkins led Nelson with 23 points, and Emmanuel Nzekwesi and Thomas Williams added 17 and 14 respectively. “Denton is just so athletic that we just wanted to try and defend as well as we could and we did a good job of that in the second half,” Nelson coach Scott Curran said. “They didn’t shoot the ball real well in the second half and we did a good job of getting to the line.” Nelson and Denton both advance to the playoffs, with the Bobcats seeded second and Denton as the third seed. Their opponents are yet to be determined as Saginaw Boswell and Fort Worth Polytechnic tied for the second seed and will have to either play it off or flip later in the week. Nelson and Denton played fast and furious in the first quarter, ending in a 21-all tie. Denton went to the half leading 36-33. Watkins had 13 in the first half for Nelson, while Jackson had 15 and Manny Patterson added 10. Denton went up 44-38 on a basket by Jackson, but would get outscored 8-0 to end the quarter as Nelson took the 50-47 lead as Thomas Williams put back a tip in at the buzzer. Peter VanHouten had a bucket and Williams added a pair of free throws before Denton scored for the first time in eight minutes on a Patterson basket.

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