Boys basketball state semifinal Fast Break: Birdville, Brock lose thrillers

While the North Crowley and Mansfield Summit boys basketball teams advanced to state championship games, two other Fort Worth-area teams suffered heartbreaking losses in the state semifinals.

No. 6 Birdville comes up just short against No. 1 Heritage

North Richland Hills Birdville did everything it could to slow down the two standout players from Frisco Heritage. And it almost worked.

SMU signee Cameron Lomax scored two of his game-high 30 points on a 5-foot runner in the lane with 1.4 seconds left as the Coyotes escaped with a 65-63 win in a Class 5A Division I state semifinal thriller Tuesday night at Hebron High School.

“This was a fan’s dream with two really good teams going punch for punch and toe to toe,” Birdville coach Anthony Holman said. “That’s a really good team. They have two pros on their team, and they’re really well coached.

“I think it was a fun game, but their guys are just so good. They beat everybody by 100.”

Heritage (33-2), No. 1 in the state in Class 5A according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, will make its first appearance in a championship game when the Coyotes face No. 2 Beaumont West Brook (34-3) in the 5A DI title game at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio. West Brook routed No. 20 Leander Glenn 63-35 on Friday night.

Before facing the Hawks, Heritage had defeated its four previous playoff opponents by an average of almost 20 points.

No. 6 Birdville (31-6) was aiming to return to the Alamodome after the Hawks reached the state title game a year ago and fell to West Brook 63-57 in an overtime heartbreaker. Birdville defeated Heritage 77-71 in the state semifinals last season.

Birdville tried to force the ball out of the hands of Lomax and Duke signee Bryson Howard, who finished with 19 points, and it worked for much of the game when the Coyotes were in a half-court offense. But the dynamic duo did do damage off of steals and fast breaks.

The game was much like the Hawks’ regional final game last week against Denton as Birdville had to come back from a sizable deficit late to take the game to the wire.

Neither team led by more than five points in the first half. Heritage jumped out to a 9-4 lead on a basket by Howard with 4:33 left in the first quarter, but Birdville’s Sawyer Dotson cut into that after making the first of three 3-point shots while getting fouled during the contest.

After the converted foul shot, the Hawks trailed 9-8. Birdville didn’t take its first lead in the game until a 3-pointer by Brenden Williams to open the second quarter gave the Hawks a 19-16 lead.

A Lomax 3 at the second-quarter buzzer gave Heritage a 34-30 lead at the break.

“The plan was to just try and limit them to what we could,” Holman said of the huge task of trying to contain Lomax and Howard. “We knew they were going to be hard to stop individually, so we had to try and guard them as a team. And thought our guys did everything they could to make it happen.

“We bottled them up a little bit, but they hit some tough ones. If a couple things bounce a different way then who knows. It’s just how basketball goes sometimes.”

The Coyotes built the lead to 10 points twice in the fourth quarter, the latter being on a lay-in by Lomax with 2:47 left in the game that made it 60-50. The flash of Heritage was matched by the grit of Birdville as the Hawks went on a 13-3 run from that point and tied the game at 63 when D.J. Driver hit a pair of clutch free throws with 50 seconds left.

After Dotson blocked a shot by Derrick Johnson out of bounds with 37 seconds left, the Coyotes were content to try to take the last shot. Heritage worked the ball until Lomax drove down the right side of the lane before crossing over to the left and tossing up a 5-foot runner that bounced around and then in with 1.4 ticks left on the clock.

Avery Webb got off a desperation 3-pointer from three-quarter court, but the try came up short and off to the left.

In addition to scoring 49 of Heritage’s 65 points, Lomax had six rebounds and four steals, while Howard pulled down seven boards with three assists and three steals. Roman Bradley had four points for the Coyotes, but led the team with eight rebounds.

Dotson led Birdville with 29 points and recorded three rebounds. Driver finished with 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals, while Gabriel Zachariah added eight points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

“We knew we were going to have play an almost perfect game, and we didn’t,” Holman said. “We made some mistakes, and I didn’t have us in the spots we needed to be in some of those times, but our kids fight.

“I’d take those kids into any game there was against any competition. I’m just so grateful to be their coach. I told them after the game that I thank God every day that I get to be their coach.”

No. 24 Brock takes top-ranked Carter to the limit

Brock battled Dallas Carter for four quarters, but the Cowboys managed to get some separation late in a 52-44 win over the Eagles in a Class 4A Division II state semifinal on Tuesday at the Arlington ISD Athletics Center.

Carter (30-6), No. 1 in the Class 4A state poll according to the TABC, will be attempting to claim its first state championship after two previous runner-up finishes. The Cowboys will face No. 2 La Marque (41-1), which squeaked past No. 6 Houston Wheatley 68-67 on Tuesday night.

No. 24 Brock (28-10) trailed 27-20 at the half, but the Eagles battle back and took a 37-36 lead on a jumper by Jacoby Boxell with just more than six minutes left. Later Brock pulled to within one point, 40-39, after a layup by Brady Williams.

Carter led by three when Landon Higgs hit the Cowboys’ only 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to 46-40 with 2:45 left in the game. A putback by Terrell Jackson made it 48-42, and an Amarion Hunter layup with 51 ticks left put the game away.

A big problem for Brock was the height of Carter that resulted in a 30-15 edge in rebounding for the Cowboys. The Eagles have one player on their roster at 6-foot-6, while Carter has three players who are 6-foot-7 or taller.

Brock was in its 13th state semifinal, but the first since 2021. The Eagles are a three-time state champion, winning titles in 2002, 2003 and 2015.

This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 1:36 AM.