The Cooldown: Week 23
District standings are becoming more and more important as we head into the final weeks of the regular season. We’ll recap some of last weeks’ best games and help provide the playoff picture for a few districts as the regular season starts to wind down.
All stats, remaining games and standings were taken from Maxpreps.
Cy Woods takes control of 16-6A
Cy Ranch entered the week with a chance to pull even in 16-6A. Cy Ranch exited the week in third place thanks to a dominant showing from district leader Cy Woods.
Not much separates first from fourth place in 16-6A with Cy Woods leading at 8-1 with Cy Ranch and Cy Lakes tied for third at 7-3. The next-closest squad is Cy Falls at 3-7, so the playoff squads are all but locked up in this district with Cy Park joining Woods, Ranch and Lakes.
The order those four will go in is far from decided. Cy Woods is in the driver’s seat with sole possession of first place (though Cy Park is just half-a-game back at 8-2) with four of its five remaining games against non-playoff district opponents. As long as the Wildcats don’t slip up they will be the district champs.
Cy Park is likely to be the only beneficiary of a Cy Woods slip up; the Tigers dealt Woods its only district loss on Saturday and would split the district title should Woods slip up. Cy Ranch and Cy Lakes sit at 7-3 each and they’ll play each other a week from Wednesday.
Our cameras were at the Cy Ranch versus Cy Woods game on Wednesday and the highlights didn’t disappoint. The win helped further assure first place in 16-6A for Woods.
Goose Creek Memorial out-lasts Manvel
District 22-5A paints a similar story with two dominant teams at the top and only a few more in the playoff picture with a big mid-week district tilt last week.
Manvel started off the season with a loss to Atascocita – a top five team in 6A – before reeling off 14 straight wins. That ended at the hands of Goose Creek Memorial on Wednesday. Junior Sam Bradford – not the former Oklahoma quarterback! – had an outstanding game for the Patriots.
Bradford finished with 25 points and 11 boards to go with two assists and he wasn’t alone -- Avant Coleman finished with 23 points and three steals to add to Bradford’s dominance to down the Mavs. The win means Manvel and GCM split the season series 1-1 and the Patriots will have to hope Manvel slips up to tie for the district title.
Manvel sits at 11-1 in district play while GCM is 10-2. The Mavs round out district play with games against Santa Fe and Baytown Lee, each of whom Manvel beat by 30+ points the first time around. That means Manvel has all but locked down the district title with GCM holding down second. Texas City has secured a spot at 8-3 and Ball and La Porte will fight for the final playoff spot; Ball at 7-6 and La Porte at 5-5.
Shadow Creek ends crazy week at 5-0
Have we ever seen a team play a game on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday?
That’s what Shadow Creek went through last week – five games in five days – and it looked like WWWWW. We caught the middle of those five games as the Sharks took on Pearland on Wednesday night. Ramon Walker led the way with 15 points and four boards in the 41-35 win. Javon Marshall added 11-2-2 to aid in the effort.
Dawson leads the district at 9-1 with Shadow Creek in hot pursuit at 8-1. Pearland is currently in third at 6-3 and then it gets interesting. We’ve seen the effects of the coronavirus on this district already – ask Shadow Creek how fun it was to play five consecutive days – and Elsik might have to do something similar. Elsik sits at 3-2, just barely (technically) ahead of Strake Jesuit at 5-4.
I’m not going to even attempt to figure out playoff scenarios for this district until everyone is caught up. Dawson and Shadow Creek split the season series and they’ll split the district title if neither slips up in the final few games. Pearland, Elsik and Strake Jesuit will fight for the final two spots, but my money is on Pearland and Jesuit given that Elsik has to play Shadow Creek twice and Dawson once and they’ll play eight games in 10 days starting Tuesday.
Team and Player of the Week
My team-of-the-week is the Goose Creek Memorial Patriots. GCM upset No. 5 Manvel last week to put itself back in the district title conversation. Beating Manvel is no easy feat and the Patriots did it comfortably, 79-68, behind great games from Sam Bradford and Avant Coleman as mentioned.
My player-of-the-week is Cy Woods senior Damian Watson. The senior had 16 first-half points to help the Wildcats distance themselves from Cy Ranch to run away with an important win. Watson finished with 19 points and this Sports Center top-10 worthy put-back slam.