The Cooldown- Week 24
Cover Photo via Kim Noble and @GuyerBasketball on Twitter
DFW- Week 24
We’re back to basketball! We took last week to talk about UIL realignment, as it took place last Monday. Now we are back to a full-court press on basketball coverage with playoffs just around the corner. There are two weeks left in the regular season before the playoffs start and district races are heating up.
Allen Survives Prosper
District 9-6A leader Allen survived a late scare against second place Prosper. A talented Prosper team led Allen by 10 at halftime but Allen erased the deficit in the third quarter. A monster dunk from Manny Obaseki pushed the Allen lead to five with three minutes left in the game. Prosper couldn’t pull off the upset, losing 78-75 to Allen on the road. Both teams should reasonably be expected to win out. Allen is 11-0 in district play while Prosper drops to 8-3. McKinney is tied with Prosper for 2ndplace at 8-3 and Plano will likely be the fourth playoff team in District 9-6A with a 6-5 record and a substantial lead over fifth place Plano East. McKinney still has games against Prosper and Allen on the schedule while Prosper still has games against Plano and Plano East, along with McKinney.
Denton Guyer Outlasts Byron Nelson
Denton Guyer took on 2ndplace Byron Nelson in District 5-6A last Friday night. Byron Nelson led by one point at halftime and held a 47-46 advantage heading to the fourth quarter. Guyer outscored Byron Nelson 19-15 in the final frame for a 65-62 win. Tyler McGhie led Guyer with 23 points and JaKobe Coles followed with 20 points of his own. Guyer remained undefeated in district play with the win. Byron Nelson has only lost to Guyer in district and both teams should win out and finish as the best two teams in district 5-6A. Guyer is 11-0 in district play while Byron Nelson is 9-2. The two other likely playoff teams behind Guyer and Byron Nelson are Keller and Keller Central. Both teams are currently 6-5 in district play and Keller will play at Central on Tuesday night. Central will close out district play against Denton Guyer and Byron Nelson while Keller will close with Southlake Carroll and Keller Timber Creek. If Central losses its final three games and Northwest Eaton wins two of its last three against Byron Nelson, Timber Creek and Keller Fossil Ridge, Eaton will make the playoffs at 7-7 while Central is left out at 6-8.
District 6-6A Race
The District 6-6A race is heating up and will be one to watch down the stretch. There are five teams fighting for four playoff spots and all are technically still in play for the first seed. Coppell leads the district with a 9-2 record. Lewisville is on a four-game winning streak, bringing the Fighting Farmers district record to 8-3 and tied for 2ndplace with Flower Mound and Irving MacArthur. Flower Mound Marcus is on the outside looking in with a 7-4 district record.
Marcus has a big showdown with Lewisville on Tuesday night before closing out the season with the bottom two teams in the district in Irving and Irving Nimitz. Marcus should finish with a 9-5 district record in the worst-case scenario. That still might not be enough.
Lewisville has a tougher path though. A win over Marcus would go a long way, but the Farmers still have Flower Mound and MacArthur on the schedule. Lewisville and Marcus could tie for fourth place, in which case Lewisville will really need to beat Marcus after losing to the Marauders in their first matchup.
MacArthur could lose any of its last three games as well. The Cardinals play at Flower Mound on Tuesday night before finishing its schedule at home against Coppell and on the road against Lewisville.
Flower Mound has home games against MacArthur and Lewisville left before closing out the season against Irving. The worst-case scenario for Flower Mound should be a 9-5 finish as well.
That leaves Coppell. The Cowboys close their season out against Nimitz, MacArthur and Irving. Coppell also has the most room for error with a one game lead over Flower Mound, MacArthur and Lewisville. The worst-case scenario finish for Coppell looks to be 11-3. The Cowboys will almost certainly win the district, but how the next four teams shake out will be a mystery. We will know a lot more a week from now when teams across the metroplex have just one district game left to play.