Eastern Hills boys advance to regionals
Forced to abandon its 2-3 zone defense early, Saginaw Chisholm Trail couldn’t hold back Fort Worth Eastern Hills big man Byron Hobbs in a Class 5A Region I quarterfinal Tuesday at Colleyville Heritage High School.
The 6-foot-5 forward worked the pick and roll to perfection, grabbing some easy layups and scoring 13 points in a critical stretch to send the Highlanders into the regional tournament this weekend with a 58-54 win over the Rangers.
Eastern Hills (21-7) meets El Paso Burges (27-4) in a 5A Region I semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday at Western Texas College in Snyder.
“That was our game plan all the way,” Hobbs said. “We watched so much film this week and we just went out and did our job.”
For Hobbs, that meant rolling hard to the basket as he fueled a 14-0 run with eight points midway through the second quarter.
That run was key to keeping the Rangers (26-6) off track and created enough cushion to withstand Chisholm Trail’s late run.
Chisholm Trail’s Dustin Mathis buried a 3-pointer from the right side to cut the deficit to 56-54 with 31.3 seconds left in the game, but a turnover and a free-throw each from Courtland Walton and Nayhon Maloy closed out the scoring.
Walton led Eastern Hills with 19 points and Miguel Encarnacion had 13.
“We’re a second-half team, we’re a team that closes things out,” Hobbs said. “We do so many drills in practice to close games out and we do it until we get it right.
“We know it gets harder at every game, but I thought we handled it well tonight and had control of this one.”
Chisholm Trail senior forward Cameron Huntsman had 28 points and Ryan Flores had 14.
“Both teams played their hearts out, no doubt,” Chisholm Trail coach David Markley said. “We battled back and didn’t give up and we had a couple of chances in the final few seconds but it just didn’t go our way, but I’m proud of them for having those chances.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Eastern Hills boys advance to regionals."