JUSTIN — A’Shawn Robinson and Damontre McFarland have been a dominant force inside all season for Fort Worth Arlington Heights. Once again the two were unstoppable Friday night.
The only thing that held down the two, who combined for 28 points, was foul trouble, but it was the remainder of the team that stepped up in key opportunities to help the Jackets knock off Guyer 58-50 in a Class 4A area-round game at Northwest High School.The victory sets up a third meeting between the Jackets (21-11) and Fort Worth Trimble Tech. That game is set for Tuesday night with a time and site to be determined.Heights, who led only once in the first half at 2-0, wasn’t able to lock up the win until the final seconds, after making only 11 of 22 free throws in the fourth quarter and missed 7 of 8 late in the game.Sophomore Tyler Kelley, who missed 3 of 4 free throws with just over a minute to go, stepped to the line and made 3 of his last 4 attempts to seal the victory.“We’ve got guys on the bench who have stepped up big all year and come up big when we needed them,” Heights coach Jon Wagner said. “Tyler has played great the past two or three games for us.”Heights started the second half on a 5-0 run to open a 30-25 lead behind McFarland and Robinson. Once they grabbed the lead in the second half, they never let go. The Jackets’ biggest lead of the third quarter was five points, and they led 42-38 going to the fourth.“In the second half we made a concerted effort to get the ball inside,” Wagner said. “We talked about just weathering the storm, and we did a good job of that in the first half and were able to battle back to tie the game.”Guyer (25-7) started the fourth with a basket and Heights answered with an 8-0 run to lead 50-40 with 5:06 to go in the game. The big blow was a 3-pointer by Brennan Bibbs, his only points of the game.Heights only lead of the first half came when Kendall Washington hit two free throws to open the game. Down by as many as nine at 11-2 and eight at 23-15, Leon Sanders drained back-to-back 3s to cut it to two.After missing six consecutive free-throw attempts, Justin Hemphill drained two free throws to tie the game at 25 apiece as the teams went to intermission.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
