Dragons off to strong start, ready for North Crowley

The Carroll boys basketball team is off to a strong start this season, and coach Eric McDade said that things are going extremely well from top to bottom.

Carroll played Mansfield on Tuesday night after the press deadline and will host North Crowley at 8 p.m. on Friday. See www.dfwvarsity.com for results.

“I coached at North Crowley for five years when Tommy [Brakel] first started that program,” McDade said. “He does a great job, and they are one of the premier programs around. Any time you get to test yourself against them to kind of see where you are, it's a great gauge. We'll learn a lot from that game and will have our hands full.”

McDade added that his Freshman A and Freshman B and JV teams all won the Grapevine Tournament this past weekend and finished 17-1 overall.

Carroll defeated Denton Guyer 68-58 in the Cedar Hill Lions Club Tournament on Friday, and McDade said he was impressed with the way his players handled themselves.

“The guys really stepped up and played good,” McDade said. “Any time you go down around I-20 and the South Dallas area near Cedar Hill, you want to go down there with your best. Our guys really stepped up to the plate and did a great job against stiff competition.”

The Dragons went 3-1 in overall tournament competition, losing only to the host team, Cedar Hill, in what McDade described as a “dog fight.”

The Carroll coach said he does believe that the non-district schedule has done a great job of preparing his team for district competition.

“Hopefully, going down to the Houston area and playing some strong competition and going 2-2 down there, and then playing Plano West, one of the best teams in the country, and really playing well and having a shot to cut into the game in the third quarter will help us,” McDade said. “Our guys have gained some confidence in knowing that we can compete with everybody, especially since we are getting ready for a tough, tough district.”

McDade said that he does believe this year’s UIL realignment kept his district just as hard, if not harder, than last year.

“I think the teams in our district are really tough, just like in football,” McDade said. “We are just going to have to deal with it, play some very tough games and hopefully, we can come out on top.”

The Carroll coach said he has had a number of players step up to this point, as well.

“We've got some buys banged up right now,” McDade said. “Hunter Summy has been out with an injury, and Joey McCormick is also injured, and other guys have stepped up. L.J. (Lil’Jordan Humphrey) has stepped up and done a great job. Cooper Osburn has played well, and our post play inside, with Holden Taylor and Austin Smith. And then, of course, any time you've got a guy like Kirk Mason, a third-year varsity player, it's always good. He's really answered the bell.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2014 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Dragons off to strong start, ready for North Crowley."