Basketball playoff recap: Timberview teams have big 2nd halves; Bowie, Haltom upset
Boys
Mansfield Timberview 58, Eastern Hills 45
Defending Class 5A state champion Mansfield Timberview didn’t panic Monday when Fort Worth Eastern Hills tossed a zone defense at the Wolves.
Timberview used a third-quarter surge to pull away from the pesky Highlanders and registered a 58-45 Class 5A Region I bi-district playoff win at Wilkerson-Grienes Activity Center.
Next up for Timberview (24-8) is an area-round game with Braswell (26-9). The Broncos defeated Grapevine, 63-52, Monday night.
The Wolves trailed 24-23 with 6:14 to play in the third quarter, but Timberview answered with four points to take the lead at 27-24. Then sophomore guards Donovan O’Day and Jared Washington connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 33-26.
Timberview coach Duane Gregory said he talked to his team at halftime about doing the things that helped them win nine of their last 10 games and the Wolves responded.
“In the first half, we were walking the ball down the floor and were standing around looking at the zone,” Gregory said. “So I told them we have to do the stuff we did in those 10 games. They came out with a good start in the second half.”
By the end of the third quarter, Timberview held a 37-26 advantage, thanks in part to a 14-2 run in the last 5:57 of the third quarter.
Senior guard Ahmad Richardson led Timberview with 16 points. Washington finished with 13 and senior guard Joey Madimba tallied 11.
“We wanted to try and get out in transition before they got a chance to set up their zone,” Gregory said. “But when they did get set up in the zone in the second half, we did a better job of attacking it. We were looking at the zone too much in the first half. We attacked (their zone) more in the second half and got things on the backside.”
Eastern Hills (14-12) was paced by senior post Eric Witt, who scored 14 points. Junior guard Jordan Milles added 10.
“We are just taking it one game at a time,” Gregory said. “That’s all it is this time of year. We’ve been down this road before and it’s one game at a time.”
Haltom 41, North Crowley 38
Facing a team like North Crowley, which has made the playoffs nearly every year during its 22-year history, Haltom’s backs were against the wall.
But the Buffalos kept fighting until they made some of their own history.
Trailing 19-16 at intermission, Haltom rallied to stun North Crowley in a 6A Region I bi-district game at Fossil Ridge on Monday.
It’s the first playoff win for Haltom since 2010. Before that, it was 1994.
North Crowley didn’t make the playoffs in 2014. The only other time the Panthers lost in the first round was during their first year of 1998-1999.
“You know for us to be a young team and come out and compete against a tough North Crowley team and play a whole 32 minutes is amazing,” junior forward Jace Washington said. “I would go through anything for my team just like I know they would for me. It’s just a emotional moment for all of us. Everyone counted us out because it was North Crowley, but it’s amazing for us to pull off one of the biggest upsets in Texas.”
Haltom (19-14) will await Tuesday’s winner between El Paso Coronado and Wolfforth Frenship in the area round Thursday or Friday. Coronado and Frenship will tip off at 7:30 pm in Monahans.
Junior forward Paul Bizimana led with 21 points for the Buffs.
North Crowley, which was No. 2 in the final area rankings, ends at 27-8.
Arlington Bowie 85, LD Bell 69
Bowie’s speed and tough district schedule seemed to be the difference in its 6A Region I bi-district game against 3-6A champ LD Bell at Grand Prairie on Monday.
The Volunteers (23-10) will await Tuesday’s winner between Amarillo Tascosa and EP Franklin in the area round. The two tip off at 7:30 pm in Andrews.
“I think just us running up and down the floor really helped,” Bowie coach Allen Gratts said. “Speed was a big deal. We knew they weren’t very deep and they loved taking a lot of threes. If we could get them up and down the court and make them play fast, eventually those legs would tire out and make it tough to shoot a bunch of threes.”
Bowie wins its playoff opener for the 13th time in the last 15 seasons.
Junior forward Donta Coady led all scorers with 26 points while seniors Hiram Alexander and Tyronn Burdine added 16 apiece for the Vols.
Jaden Wells and Naz Brown led Bell (23-4) with 24 and 20 points, respectively.
Girls
Mansfield Timberview 64, The Colony 50
It looked like The Colony was going to pull off the upset on Monday during its 5A Region I quarterfinal at Colleyville Heritage. The Cougars held an 18-11 lead after the first quarter behind McDonald All-American nominees Tamia Jones and Jewel Spear.
But it wasn’t going to be the end for the No. 5 Lady Wolves.
Timberview (29-8) turned up its defense to beat the Cougars and advances to the regional tournament for the fifth straight season.
“No one cares who gets the credit, they just want to be apart of it,” Timberview coach Kit Kyle Martin said. “They pick each other up and this game is important to them. They don’t want to let each other down and they just go out there and play the game.”
The Lady Wolves will play Wichita Falls Rider at 6 pm on Friday from Western Texas College in Snyder.
Nina Milliner knocked a corner 3-pointer and Desiree Wooten hit a jumper from the free-throw line to give Timberview an 11-6 lead with three minutes left in the first quarter.
But the Cougars (21-12) scored the final 12 points to grab an 18-11 lead. Timberview outscored The Colony 15-9 in the second, but The Colony held onto a 27-26 edge at halftime.
“Message was we’re not going home. We refuse to go home,” Wooten said.
Timberview’s defense allowed two baskets in the second and third quarters combined and outscored The Colony 17-2 in the third. At one point, the Lady Wolves scored 15 straight points and held the Cougars scoreless for over six minutes.
Wooten scored 17 points while Jasmynne Brown added 18. Senior Destiny Burton also scored 18 points on her 18th birthday. Milliner added 9.
Spear and Jones led the Cougars with 20 points apiece in their final game. Spear scored 11 in the fourth quarter while Jones scored 14 in the first half.
“We stayed on Jewel and had one of our best defenders on her,” Wooten said.
Spear will play at Wake Forest next season while Jones will stay home and play at SMU.
“We play team defense with our hands up all the time. They can really shoot the ball, but we were determined to help on the drive and not allow too many uncontested shots,” Martin said. “They’re two stars who had to do so much work on both ends that they were exhausted at the end of the game.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 9:30 PM.
