Lipan controls Mumford in state semifinal to advance to UIL championship game
Garrett Smith scored 23 points and Tripp Phillips chipped in 17 as Lipan ran away from Mumford after the first quarter during a Class 2A state semifinal on Friday at the Alamdome.
Lipan (39-0) will play in the 2A championship at 1:30 p.m. Saturday against Clarendon. It’s the Indians second straight trip to state and fourth in six seasons.
Lipan has won four state titles with back-to-back in 2017 and 2018.
A win Saturday would make Lipan the 13th boys basketball team in UIL history to have at least a 40-0 undefeated season and just the second in this century. Oddly enough, the only other time a team won 40 games and went perfect since 2000 was Mumford in 2013.
A rather low-scoring affair in the opening eight minutes as Lipan held a 9-8 edge. But the Indians began to take control of the game with a 20-14 spurt in the second.
Smith’s three tied the game at 12-12 and he hit another from distance to make it 17-14. Lipan would score six straight to go up 23-17 following a Cody Harwell layup with 3:15 left in the period. The Indians got four free throws and a pair of layups to close out the quarter with six of the final eight points and led 29-22 at the break.
Mumford would stick around in the third quarter until Lipan took its largest lead at 44-34 after Smith nailed a jumper just before the buzzer sounded. The Indians then scored the first eight points of the fourth to go up 52-34 after Phillips’ jumper at the 4:14 mark.
Lipan held Mumford to just six points in the fourth and three in the final 3:55 that came on a three-pointer with 11 seconds remaining.
Smith shot 10 of 18 from the floor with three threes and added nine rebounds. Phillips was 5 of 10 and 6 of 7 from the line. Harwell added 10 points and eight boards.
Lipan, which has won all six playoff games and eight straight by at least 16 points, held Mumford to 33% shooting, including 6 of 25 from three.
The Indians had a 36-23 rebounding advantage and out scored Mumford 32-16 in the paint.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 10:36 AM.
