Flash Staff Report
TheFlashToday.com
(June 4, 2017) — Stephenville’s summer boys and girls basketball teams each qualified Saturday for the Texas Basketball Championships state tournament.
The Honeybees went to Mineral Wells for a qualifying tournament and beat Ponder, 66-51, in the championship. That came after a 52-27 victory over Ponder in their last pre-scheduled pool game. The Honeybees opened the day with a narrow victory – single digits – over Graham.
“We didn’t play real well early in the day, but to me it looked we got better the more we played,” said Stephenville High School girls head coach Alan Thorpe, who by UIL rule cannot coach the summer league team but was there to watch.
Bill Brooks wasn’t even able to do that much with his boys team Saturday, but for good reason. Brooks just completed his second year in charge of the Yellow Jacket basketball program, reaching the bi-district round of the 4A playoffs in each, and was selected to coach the South team – they lost to the north, 86-76 – in the Big Country Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Classic at The Coliseum in Brownwood.
Opponents in a boys qualifying tournament in Hamilton were not fortunate enough to catch the Yellow Jackets snoozing with Brooks away. Even shorthanded with Blake Aragon at SMU Football Camp, they cruised to the title in similar fashion to the girls.
Stephenville beat Priddy, 66-51, in the championship game. The Jackets jumped out to a 24-13 lead after the first quarter, saw it trimmed to eight by halftime, then basically sealed the tourney title with a seven-point advantage in the third providing a comfortable 52-37 margin entering a fourth quarter that saw even scoring both ways.
Both teams had actually qualified just by reaching the championship games, explained Thorpe, because the top two teams from each approved tournament qualify for state, making it similar to qualifying standard used in 7-on-7 football.
The Texas Basketball Championships are only for school teams, explained Thorpe, whose Honeybees have now qualified for the state tournament in all three years the TBC has existed. Every player must attend and play for the school and program they are representing at the summer qualifiers and state tournament. The TBC is not affiliated with the University Interscholastic League that governs the bulk of Texas high school and junior high athletics competitions in addition to band competitions, numerous academic events and more.
“There are no AAU teams or any other kind of elite team that has the best couple players from several schools, sort of like an all-star team,” said Thorpe. “Whoever we play, they have to play with their kids and we have to get after them with ours, so it’s fair and it ensures teams are working together to improve, mainly their chemistry just by having extra time and extra games together, for our next season.”
The Jackets punched tickets to the state tournament in their initial attempt, as they did not participate in qualifiers the last two summers.
The state tournament is fast approaching, as the boys and girls championships set for Friday, June 23 – Sunday, June 25. Games will be scattered throughout the Grapevine and Colleyville area of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
For more information visit TexasBasketballChampionships.com. Click the words to link to their website.
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