Plano Prestonwood Lions State Title Recap - 2013 Basketball

Prestonwood coach Chris Mayberry could not have been happier to see Julius Randle return from a broken foot in time for the playoffs. The senior scored 40 in the Lions semifinal game against John Paul the second and looks to be at full strength. However, playing a whole season without the stud hoopster, Mayberry's team learned to work as a unit. And as the Vikings double teamed Randle much of the first quarter, it freed up others to make big time shots and Prestonwood ran out to a 14-4 lead. Nolan would have the highlight of the first half, though. Michael Hoffman rises up one handed to slam home this alley oop. Very impressive. But Randle would showcase his skills in the 2nd quarter. Here he hits the step back 3 pointer. Randle follows that up with another jumper over the double team and Prestonwood led 31-20 at halftime. Second half and Julius would continue to do work from the outside. Going back to the step back jumper and then hitting another pull up jumper from the baseline as the Lions led 44-32 as they headed into the 4th. That's when Nolan Catholic made a furious comeback. Gabe Gumm hits this shot from behind the arc and the Viking faithful go nuts as it's tied at 52. Randle would push that lead back up to 4 off an alley oop pass from Shane Missimo. But with 5 seconds left it was 57-55 Lions and Nolan has the ball. They go immediately to the hot hand of Landon Russell who finds the clear path thru the lane for the basket and we are headed to overtime. In O-T, Russell hits the 3 in his defenders eye. He ended up with 20 points and Nolan Catholic had a one point lead. But Julius Randle would score 10 points in overtime. This basket inside made it 64-63 Lions. And then, on the other end, Randle picks Huffman's pocket and leads Prestonwood the other way until he is in the lane for another basket. Julius Randle finished the game with 34 points and 20 boards as Prestonwood wins back to back titles with the 71-66 victory. The game's M-V-P immediately looks for his mom as his comeback is now complete.