North Crowley boys step up defense to rout Coppell in 6A regional semifinals

North Crowley, No. 2 in the state in Class 6A according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, let Coppell hang around for half of the first quarter, but the Panthers turned up the heat after that for a 71-40 thumping of the Cowboys in a Class 6A Division I regional semifinal on Tuesday at Mansfield Timberview High School.

North Crowley (32-3) moves on to the 6A DI Region I final where the Panthers will take on No. 24 Allen (24-6) later this week.

Allen took care of Haslet Eaton 49-31 on Tuesday and was the team that knocked North Crowley out of the playoffs last season in the regional-semifinal round.

“It really does leave a bad taste in our mouths,” said North Crowley junior guard Isaak Hayes, who led all scorers with 18 points to go along with 8 assists, 5 rebounds and a steal. “They (Allen) knocked us out last year and we want our revenge. We really want to get past that one.”

Coppell (26-12) played tough to start tying the game up at 4-4 on an 8-footer by Isaiah Fleming with 5:14 left in the first quarter. But North Crowley followed that with an 11-0 run to go up 15-4 with 2:49 left in the opening frame.

The Panthers got a pair of steals in addition to three blocked shots by Trey Hall to aid the spree. North finished out the first quarter with a 16-4 run to push the lead to 20-8.

“Our team is very good, everybody can score, so it’s just breaking down the defense,” said Hayes, who was masterful running the offense for the Panthers. “When people cut open you just look for them, and it’s easy buckets.”

And easy buckets it was as North Crowley built the lead to over 20 points and maintained that for the rest of the game.

“We were pleased with the game,” said North Crowley head coach Tommy Brakel. “We’ve been talking to them all year about how good we are offensively, but that it’s going to have to be our defense that’s going to win us some games down the stretch and how defense travels. We really played well defensively tonight.”

Brakel felt that they could play much better on offense as far as field-goal percentage, but the Panthers shot a robust 47% (28 of 59) from the field including 58% (21 of 36) on twos and 30% (7 of 23) on threes. Coppell struggle shooting 31% (14 of 44) from the field and only 9% (1 of 11) from beyond the arc and only hit 11 of 25 free throws.

“We didn’t shoot the basketball well from the perimeter tonight, percentage wise, and that’s typically one of our strengths,” said Brakel. “But when you’ve got guard play like Isaac (Hayes) and KP (Kameron Price) they just make the game so much easier for everybody else.”

Brakel lauded Hall for his dominance on the defensive end blocking shots, getting defensive rebounds and getting the team out on transition. Hall, who Brakel says typically shoots well from three-point range, had only 6 points on the night (0 for 6 from beyond the arc), but the senior was a force inside with 9 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, 4 steals and 2 assists.

North Crowley took its biggest lead at 53-20 on a lay in by Kameron Price with 32 seconds left in the third quarter. The Cowboys went on a 12-0 run from that point and cut the lead to 21, with some momentum, but North Crowley snuffed it out in a hurry.

A thunderous dunk by Hall off an assist by Hayes brought the home crowd to its feet. A minute and a half later a nifty reverse dunk by Jonathan Fox, off a terrific feed by Hayes, sent Panther fans into delirium pushing the lead back to 27 points at 61-34 with 4:10 left in the game.

“That was crazy,” said Hayes of the Fox acrobatic dunk. “I had seen Fox cut and I threw it, but I thought he was gonna dunk it regularly. He jumped up and I was like ‘oh my God, that was great’. It really did surprise me.”

Fox finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots with Price chipping in 11 points, 4 steals and 3 assists. North Crowley was out rebounded 34-33 by Coppell, but the Panthers led 18-6 in assists, 11-3 in steals and 9-1 in blocked shots.

“We want our guys to not just be one-trick ponies, if you will, but to be complete basketball players,” said Brakel. “I felt like they did a pretty good job of that tonight.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2026 at 1:18 AM.