The Cooldown: Week 19
With the two-week holiday break coming to an end, district play started up on Friday. Because of the break, we have only one day of games to cover as opposed to the normal Tuesday and Friday schedule we’ll have for the rest of the season. With that, here are three games we had our eyes on last Friday.
1. Dickinson rolls to open district play
One thing to count on is seeing us talk a lot about this Dickinson squad. The Gators opened district play with a huge 88-55 win against Clear Falls.
Houston commit Tramon Mark went for 34 points and eight rebounds while Marcus William did a little of everything by chipping in 18 points, 11 assists and eight boards. Part of what makes Dickinson so dangerous is they’re a team that plays well together and they complement each other well.
Next up is the district home opener against Clear Springs. It’s Dickinson’s first home game since a Nov. 26 win against Texas City. The Chargers opened their district schedule with a two-point loss to Clear Brook on Friday.
2. Summer Creek impresses against Atascocita
The Bulldogs have put Houston on notice early and often. Summer Creek picked up wins against Dickinson, Allen and Beaumont United during non-district, and opened district play with a win on the road against then No. 5 Atascocita.
While Atascocita beat Summer Creek in the McDonald’s Texas Invitational earlier in the season, Summer Creek now has a big advantage with the win in district play.
Dylan Miles finished with 15 in the win, as Summer Creek is a home win against Atascocita away from potentially taking the district crown. Of course, either team could slip up elsewhere in district to complicate that and I might be looking unnecessarily far down the road here, but Friday night was a huge win for Summer Creek in terms of playoff seeding.
3. Klein Forest squeaks past Klein Cain
Another team from Houston that has had tons of recent success is Klein Forest. With a few state appearances and some deep runs in the last five years, the Eagles will miss the production of Kharee McDaniel, who is now at Stephen F. Austin, greatly.
Daylan Hamilton might be the one to slide into McDaniel’s place in terms of shouldering the load for Klein Forest. He had a big game as the Eagles took down Klein Cain 65-63.
The Eagles stand at 11-6 on the season according to Maxpreps, but have several close losses. They’ve played some of the best teams in the area as well, with losses to Shadow Creek and Morton Ranch.
While 15-6A was my favorite district to watch during football season, Klein Forest should be able to take advantage of the teams in it’s district. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Eagles win district yet again. Whether or not another deep playoff run is in the works or not remains to be seen.
Bonus: Josh Vanegas comes in clutch!
With just a few seconds left on the clock and Mayde Creek down by just one point, Josh Vanegas drew a foul to head to the line. By the time Katy had committed the foul, there was less than a second left on the clock. Essentially: Make both and win, miss one and it’s headed to overtime, or miss both and it’s a loss for Mayde Creek.
So what did Vanegas do? He stepped to the line and nailed both for the 48-47 win. That’s a lot of pressure and Vanegas came in clutch as Mayde Creek moves to 1-0 in district play.