Mustangs nipped by Brewer in Starnes’ last season

The season came to an end for the Grapevine boys basketball team last week in a 45-39 loss against White Settlement Brewer in the bi-district round, and while coach Kevin Starnes said he would have liked to seen his team go further in the post season, he does believe 2014-2015 was a successful campaign for the Mustangs.

Starnes will no longer coach at Grapevine High School after this season, as he has accepted an assistant principal position at Colleyville Heritage High School, and said he was proud of his team for making the playoffs in this his last season.

“Brewer did a really good job of defending us and keeping us out of rhythm offensively,” Starnes said “We were held to 39 points, and they did a really good job. We did a really good job against them defensively, we just weren't able to score when we needed to.”

Starnes said that while his feelings are somewhat mixed about the season as a whole, he thinks that the way things transpired for his team will ultimately benefit his players.

“Truthfully, I'm a little disappointed,” Starnes said. “I felt that we had the ability to go farther, but we were so young, I think that this experience will serve the team well, moving forward.”

Starnes said that if there was one thing he would like for his kids to take away from this season, it has to do with the playoffs.

“It's hard to win playoff games,” Starnes said. “It's more physical, the atmosphere is more intense. It's just so much more heightened than a regular-season game. I just hope they realize how hard it is to win playoff games and that they are really going to have to prepare. I felt like we did that, but on game day, it is ultimately what you do that night that really matters.”

The Mustangs will lose Danny Eibel, Mason Bartman and Bryce Batchelor from this year's team, but Starnes said that he believes next year's team will be in good shape.

“Seven out of 10 varsity players are coming back,” Starnes said. “We started two sophomores for the majority of the year. Our point guard (Gabe Ford) was a junior, so we only started two seniors for the majority of the year. We're losing 30 points, which was about half of what we were scoring per game, so what these other guys are going to have to do is make up for that collaboratively. They'll have to do it as a team.”

Panthers knocked out by DeSoto

For Colleyville Heritage, a 57-53 loss in the bi-district round to powerhouse DeSoto is nothing to be ashamed about, and coach Stephen Hambrick said his team actually played pretty well in the game.

“I thought our guys played really well,” Hambrick said. “It came down to the very end. We had the lead in the fourth quarter. We did a good job of holding and recovering from a couple of runs that they made, which I was very proud of. Our kids fought hard and gave themselves a chance. I'm very proud of them.”

DeSoto was the number-two ranked team in the state headed into the game.

This story was originally published March 2, 2015 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Mustangs nipped by Brewer in Starnes’ last season."