Dallas Madison knocks off Coldspring-Oakhurst in shootout, awaits fate for title game

Dallas Madison coach Damien Mobley wasn’t really concerned with the Coldspring-Oakhurst high-scoring duo of Jacoby Bishop and Duke Lawniczak.

The defending state champions from Madison would do what Madison does.

The top-ranked team in Class 3A reached it’s 10th title game in 11 final four appearances as Madison’s pressure was too much for No. 4 Coldspring in a 90-73 win in a 3A semifinal on Thursday at the Alamodome.

“To be honest, we spend 100% of our time preparing us,” said Mobley. “We might watch some film on another team and get a little scouting report, but most of our time and concentration goes into us and doing what we do best.”

It’s still up in the air how the state title games, and the rest of the state tournament, will be handled after the UIL suspended play four games in due to the threat of the coronavirus.

The two Class 1A and two 3A semifinals were played on Thursday, but the rest of the tournament has been suspended until further notice.

Madison (23-12) were scheduled to face No. 3 San Antonio Cole (33-6) at 10 a.m. on Saturday, but officials deemed it too risky to continue with play.

Coldspring, which reached the state basketball tournament for the first time in its 83 years of existence, finished 36-5.

Lawniczak (21 points) and Bishop (20) both reached their season averages of over 20 points per game and helped Coldspring and its press to an early 11-5 lead.

But Madison, which is used to good teams starting quickly, cranked up its pressure and steadily began to break down Coldspring.

“Coldspring likes to press as well so I just told the guys to just come out as a team and play our game,” said Mobley, whose team started the season 0-8 and 2-11, but finished going 21-1 heading into the state title game. “We’ll just see which team presses the best.”

Madison’s depth was a big factor helping it finish the half on a 14-2 run to go up 41-31 at the intermission.

Five players averaged in double-digit scoring for the season for Madison with only Dye’Shun King not reaching his 13.7 average with seven points.

Christian Henry (17 points), Tavorice Weaver (16), Jerome Rogers, Jr. (16) and Kaden Keal (11) all exceeded their averages. Warren Dunn chipped in 15 more for Madison.

Mobley added that he and his players like playing against another team that presses since it’s a look that it practices against every day.

Also that the team is much more comfortable dealing with the pressure than squads that drop back and play half-court defense against them.

Madison had a 58-36 point advantage in the paint and outscored Coldspring 26-12 in points off turnovers. Madison’s pressure forced 18 miscues.

Madison kept Coldspring at bay in the third quarter before pulling away in the final period. Madison shot a whopping 82.4% (14-17) from the floor in the final frame.

The entire Madison team knew of the postponement after seeing a message flashed on the big screens as it left the court at halftime.

“It was hard knowing that we wouldn’t get to play on Saturday,” said King, “But we were really focused on the game so we could get to the championship game and then see what the UIL would do.”