Duncanville extends playoff winning streak, defends 6A championship against McKinney
After a long and difficult season, Duncanville senior Anthony Black won a state title with the Panthers and was voted state championship MVP.
Black, a 5-star McDonald’s All-American, finished with a team-high 17 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the free-throw line, and Duncanville beat McKinney 69-49 in the Class 6A state title game on Saturday in the Alamodome.
“Real happy and proud. We have guys that have gone through adversity and they stayed together and grew together, and finished the job they started,” Duncanville coach David Peavy said.
The Panthers (35-1) wins their third state title in the past four seasons. Four if you count the co-championship during the 2020 COVID year.
“We take everyone’s best shot and to do it the way we’re doing it, it’s special,” Peavy said. “26 playoff games in a row we’ve won. That’s tough. It’s tough to win 26 regular season games, but against playoff teams, that’s really hard to do.”
McKinney (35-6) was in its first state title game. The Lions clinched a state tournament berth for the first time since 1928.
“The journey they took us on created moments for our coaching staff, me personally, my family, the community that I can’t thank enough for,” McKinney coach Wes Watson said.
After a lull in the first half during its semifinal with Humble Atascocita on Friday night, Duncanville made sure to come out much stronger on Saturday.
Back-to-back layups from Black and Davion Sykes got the Panthers a 6-2 lead. After a McKinney bucket, the Panthers reeled off 13 straight and the game started to get out of hand at 19-4 following Ron Holland’s dunk with just under a minute left in the first quarter.
Duncanville led 22-7 after one.
The Panthers only scored nine points in the first quarter against Atascocita and trailed 32-19 at half. They also trailed 30-10 in the second quarter on Friday before going on a 40-6 run.
The lead grew to 27-9 in the second quarter against McKinney on a Black three-pointer and 30-11 on another three from Black just over a minute into the period.
Black has been battling the UIL for eligibilty all season after transferring to Duncanville from Coppell.
At one point, he wasn’t eligible to play until Dec. 15, almost a month after the start of the season.
He didn’t play the entire Whataburger Tournament in December until he was cleared and came in during the second half of the championship game against Richardson.
“It means everything to me,” said Black, who was fighting to hold back tears after his name was called for MVP. “Me and my teammates have been through a lot and they’ve had my back through everything.
Winning with them, putting in all the hard work, it’s special. It’s special to have a team like this...like a family.”
Ashton Hardaway, the son of former NBA player and current Memphis coach Penny Hardaway, hit a three late in the second quarter and Duncanville led 46-21 at intermission.
The Lions would come back though.
They out scored the Panthers 15-4 in the third quarter, but the lead was too large to overcome. Duncanville didn’t score in the third until about six minutes in. However, the Panthers put the game to bed with a 19-14 advantage in the fourth.
Black, Holland and Sykes were named to the all-tournament team. Holland only scored nine points, but played huge during Friday’s semifinal. Sykes scored 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting against McKinney.
McKinney’s Ja’Kobe Walter and Jacovey Campbell were also named to the all-tourney team. Walter scored 23 points in both state tournament games. The Lions rallied past Austin Westlake 68-66 in double overtime on Friday.