Grapevine boys hoops starts preparing for bi-district match

The Grapevine boys basketball team won its third straight game on Friday night, defeating Fort Worth Eastern Hills in an overtime thriller to maintain its second seed in the district standings.

Coach Jeremy Hill said that his team is playing pretty good ball right now and said that when they open the postseason, he is pretty sure the Mustangs will get Wichita Falls Rider in the bi-district round.

“They have probably the most talented player we have seen all year and definitely the most gifted athlete in T.J. Vasher,” Mills aid. “He has already signed to play football at Texas Tech, and he is a monster. He is very, very, very good, and then they surround him with good players who shoot the ball and they are fundamentally sound.”

Grapevine won 70-66 over Eastern Hills on Friday after rallying in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 49 each, and then scoring 11 points in the overtime period to win.

“It was a tough district game on the road,” Mills said. “We got off to a pretty good start and had a lead at halftime. In the third quarter, Eastern Hills really took it to us got the lead. Then in the fourth quarter we made a great comeback in the fourth quarter. We forced overtime, and then in overtime, we made more plays than they did and got the win.”

Andrew Lastinger led the team in scoring with 15 points in the game, while Boone Montgomery finished the game with 14 points and Gabe Ford added 13 points.

Ethan Tabor, Travis McCormick, Dalton Novotny and Cooper Bowers combined to score for 18 points.

Grapevine has won four of its last five games, and Mills said that his team is competing at a level he feels is appropriate as the playoffs draw closer.

“We compete each and every game, and we’ve been building to get into the playoffs,” Mills said.

In order to have a good run into the postseason, Mills said it will take a couple of things.

“First,we have to get past Rider,” Mills said. “We have to do a good job of limiting Vasher in what he can do and let the players around him have good games. We will have to be good at what we do and limit them to one shot. We need to play the right way.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Grapevine boys hoops starts preparing for bi-district match."