High school basketball players of today probably don’t know the story of Fort Worth Dunbar’s success.
That probably was way the Bobcats (28-5) should have approached Tuesday’s Class 4A Region I quarterfinal meeting at the Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City. This equals the furthest run any Byron Nelson boys team has made in the postseason. The boys soccer team played in the 2012 quarterfinals.But that just shows how times have changed. Most of these youngsters couldn’t appreciate the legendary Robert Hughes or how many games he won. For the record, Hughes won a high school-record 1,333 games in and five state championships in 33 seasons. His son, Robert Hughes Jr., is now the coach.While this Dunbar team may not resemble those other teams, it’s still pretty good. The Wildcats were 22-9 entering the game. Regardless, this was the kind of moment Nelson coach Scott Curran wants to continue to present to his budding program.“I know about Dunbar’s storied history but the kids are not going to be intimidated by the name,” Curran said. “I know how good they are. They’ve had success. But we had to approach it like any other game.”At stake was a trip to the 4A Region I tournament Friday in Snyder. If Nelson won, it would get the winner of Canyon-Wolfforth Frenship. That game would start at 4 p.m.The desired playoff success has finally been attained following back-to-back bi-district eliminations against Fort Worth Southwest.Byron Nelson has been playing great defense. It allowed only 33 points to Fort Worth Poly and 45 to Waco University.“The defense has been phenomenal,” Curran said. “The kids have really stuck with the scouting reports and paying attention to what we’re doing. Thomas Williams and Chris Nickells were great against Waco University the other night.”Admittedly, there’s a little more depth on this roster from the previous two years. That’s allowed the Bobcats to hang in there with a lot of teams and win. But it takes chemistry to win and to make it this far.“If we don’t have it, we’re not going anywhere,” backup senior guard Peter Van Houten said. “If we’re selfish, we can’t do any of this. We have nine seniors, and we don’t want to go out on a loss. We’re deeper and we can match up with the Fort Worth schools better.”Reliving the magicIf you were foggy on some of the details of the 47-45 buzzer beater win over Waco University last Friday, this is what happened.Trailing 37-26 going into the fourth quarter, the Trojans stormed back the latter half of the fourth quarter. They tied the game at 45 on Ray Washington’s 3-pointer with 8.2 seconds to play.Waco University immediately called timeout to set up the full court press defense. But Keyunta Watkins split a trap with a dribble move that included him going behind his back and through his legs. He then streaked to the goal and floated the game-winner over the Trojans’ 6-7 post as the horn sounded. That’s the 5-8 Watkins winning that battle.This was the second buzzer beater of the year for Watkins. He hit a three-pointer to win at Wichita Falls.“He’s just a special kid who plays with a chip on his shoulder,” Curran said.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
