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Balance beaming: Wolves' well-versed onslaught too much for Lubbock Trinity
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
CEDAR HILL -- Plano West boys basketball received contributions from all comers Friday afternoon.
It left Lubbock Trinity Christian powerless late in the third quarter and the Wolves didn't relent en route to a 64-47 victory in the quarterfinals of the C.W. Jackson Cedar Hill Lions Club Tournament.
"That was probably our best second half of the year," said Anthony Morgan, West head coach. "We came out to play and I was really proud of our intensity. That was a very scrappy team we played and we had to make sure we equaled that."
The Wolves didn't look back, limiting Lubbock to just seven points in the fourth and pouring on 13 of their own, despite having just four rebounds in the frame.
That's because the shots were tough to come by for Lubbock thanks to eight forced turnovers by the West defense over the final eight minutes.
Those takeaways were turned into points, with a Lozano steal leading to an and-1 for senior Zack Levick for a 56-45 lead and junior Tre Anderson later converting on a layup for a 62-45 advantage after sophomore D.J. Hogg bagged a steal of his own. That balance manifested itself in the offensive production, with six Wolves scoring at least six points, led by 14 from Anderson and senior Devron Kennedy while Lozano scored 11 and Hogg added eight.
"It was really good to see that (balance)," Morgan said. "We had some guys we've been wanting to step up and we knocked down some big shots today. It's tough to rely on a sophomore (Hogg) to carry the scoring like he has, but today A.J. was big, Devron got some big rebounds down low and (senior) Austin Enloe played great."
The Lions' fleeting hope came after opening the fourth on a 5-0 run that pulled them to 51-45 with 5:30 left, only to be held without a field goal for the remainder of the game.
Lubbock had a bit more success early in the third, tying the Wolves at 34-34 after a 3-pointer by Jaxon Parrott, who scored 10 points in the loss.
Stephenson led the Lions with 21 points, with 17 of those coming in the first half.
"We lost [Stephenson] a couple times early," Morgan said. "We had to make sure we got track of him because he was killing us. I thought we did a good job containing his shooting as the game went on."
Stephenson kept Lubbock afloat with 11 of the team's 14 first-quarter points, but Anderson's sharp-shooting off the bench ultimately paced the Wolves to a 15-14 lead.
Anderson added five more points in a second quarter that also favored West, 19-15. Three-point shooting and pinpoint ball movement in transition allowed the Wolves to expand their lead to 34-29 by the break, while also forcing seven Lubbock turnovers in the second thanks to a zone defense the Wolves ran wire-to-wire.
"Football is still in session at Plano West and we'll have some guys who are a bit more athletic coming in after that," Morgan said. "We'll mix it between man and zone because this is a young team and we're just trying to get them experience at the varsity level."
That experience made for a deep tournament run after knocking off Fort Worth Paschal, 43-19, during Thursday's first round.
Friday afternoon's win gave the Wolves a trip to the semifinals against tourney host Cedar Hill (results not available at press time).
West returns to action on the road at 8 p.m. Tuesday against Frisco Centennial.
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