Mustangs to face Brewer, hungry for bi-district victory

The Grapevine basketball team wrapped up the third place spot in District 6-5A this past week and is gearing up to play White Settlement Brewer in the first round of the playoffs.

While coach Kevin Starnes said he is not sure where or when the game will be played yet, he did say that he knows his team will have its work cut out for it.

“They are very talented,” Starnes said. “They've got a couple of kids that are 6-5 and 6-6, and they've got a really good point guard. They've got a couple of shooters, so they are talented. We are going to have to play really well to beat them.”

The game is likely to be played Feb. 24 at Northwest High School, but no time, date or location has been firmly established yet. See www.dfwvarsity.com for updates.

Grapevine defeated Eastern Hills on Friday night in a game that was not without its problems, and Starnes said he was just pleased to get out with a victory.

“The game wasn't as crisp as I like it,” Starnes said. “But, we had two kids that were sick with the flu. We had a player, Daniel Eibel, who got injured in the first half and didn't play in the second half. So at the end there, it was more of us just surviving.

“I thought that the kids stepped it up and some of them really produced offensively more than they have in he past. So I felt good about it, because we were able to overcome adversity.”

Starnes said that he has been pleased with the way his team has been performing as the playoffs get set to get under way.

“The last few games have been really good,” Starnes said. “We didn't play very well against Birdville, but since then, we've really been efficient offensively and much more sound on the defensive end. That's what we have to do in order to win.

“We've beaten Lake Dallas by 36, which was a really good game for us, we beat Poly by 17 in a game that we were up by 18 at the half, so we've been playing very well.”

The objective for the postseason is always to have as long a run as possible, but Starnes said that there is more to it than that for the Mustangs this year.

“I don't know the last time that a Grapevine boys basketball team has won a playoff basketball game,” Starnes said. “It has been been maybe since the 1980s or early 1990s, but it has been a long time, so that's our first goal. We've made the playoffs, that's a goal. Now, we want to win bi-district. Then, we'll go from there.”

Over at Colleyville Heritage, the Panthers played Richland on Tuesday night after the press deadline.

Heritage will likely participate in a play-in game toward the end of the week that will help determine the final playoff standings.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Mustangs to face Brewer, hungry for bi-district victory."