Roundup: Decatur stymies Glen Rose plus more from boys basketball regional quarterfinals

The Texas high school boys basketball playoffs have entered the regional quarterfinals.

Check back here for scores, stats and other inside looks at the Fort Worth-area’s top games. Which teams are continuing their quests for state championship gold?

Decatur handles Glen Rose

Decatur’s Javen Colbert is a special talent, and he is powering the Eagles to a deep playoff run.

Decatur (25-11) defeated Glen Rose 71-56 in a regional quarterfinal playoff game at Weatherford High School on Monday. Colbert followed up two consecutive 40 plus point performances with another monster showing, scoring a team high 34 points.

“It was a war,” Decatur head coach Rob Yeatts said of the game. “A good, old fashioned street fight with two teams going at it. Glen Rose is a tough, well coached team. They are here for a reason. They beat a great team in Burkburnett.”

Colbert was the focal point of the offense, and Glen Rose’s defense threw everything they could at him. The Tigers were unsuccessful. Yeatts credited Colbert for working hard and being a team leader.

“He is a good kid,” Yeatts said. “He gets it done. He puts in the work. At the end of the day in Texas basketball, big time players step up in big time moments. They put their team on their back and they go get it done.”

The Glen Rose offense was extremely patient in the first quarter, waiting for opportune times to pass inside or take a shot. Decatur applied pressure to ballhandlers, forcing them to speed up the pace.

“We didn’t want them to be comfortable,” Yeatts said. “We were trying to get up in them. Make them a drive and kick team. We didn’t want them cutting and screening. That’s what they like to. I thought we were able to take that away.”

At the half, Decatur led 27-19 thanks to a buzzer beating three pointer from Colbert. The junior superstar stayed composed, banking in the shot from near half court.

Decatur added to its lead in the third quarter and continued to pull away in the fourth, stopping the Glen Rose offense from increasing its tempo. Decatur guars Adan Gonzalez was a key contributor, tallying 16 points.

Glen Rose had four players in double figures: Junior Zeke Ziedziela, senior Thomas De La Cruz, junior Camden Singletary and junior Colton Andress. The Tigers were playing in a regional quarterfinal for the first time since the 2009 season.

Decatur, in the regional semifinals, will face Amarillo West Plains or Canyon, depending on the two team’s quarterfinal game on Tuesday. Decatur will play at Lubbock Christian on Friday with a tip off time that is to be determined.

“We just have to keep being us,” Yeatts said. “One game at a time. We take the highs and the lows. That’s what we’ve done all year. We’re an underrated, underdog team. We were picked fourth in our district. We lost our best two players last year. We’ve carried that chip on our shoulder.”

Lake Ridge gets hot late to eliminate Waxahachie

The Mansfield Lake Ridge boys basketball team played back and forth with District 11-6A rival Waxahachie for three quarters then outscored the Indians by 15 points in the final frame to take a 78-63 win in Class 6A Region II quarterfinal in a packed gymnasium at Midlothian High School.

Lake Ridge (30-6), No. 14 in the state in Class 6A according to the TABC, advances to its first regional tournament in school history and will face the Houston Cypress Ranch (25-11)-No. 20 The Woodlands College Park (33-4) winner in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Lufkin High School.

The game was filled with end-to-end action and was witnessed by a large crowed hanging on every point waiting to explode. Both student sections were spirited as well and the teams gave the crowd a tremendous show hitting huge shots at key times.

“What a game,” said Lake Ridge coach Cornelius Mitchell. “What a game for the fans, what a game for everybody. We just got lucky enough in the fourth quarter.”

With the scored tied at 58, Lake Ridge scored the first nine points of the final period to force No. 12 Waxahachie (23-11) to call a time out. Matthew Alexander hit a field goal and Amir McMillian, buried a three and both followed with a pair of free throws as the Eagles pushed the lead to 67-58 with 4:46 left in the game.

The Indians hit only one of 14 shots from the floor in the fourth quarter, including zero of six from beyond the arc. Lake Ridge, on the other hand was six of nine from the floor and hit seven of seven free throws in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles went 17 of 21 from the charity stripe on the night.

Lake Ridge jumped out to a 10-3 lead on a six-foot jumper in the lane by McMillian, who led the Eagles with a game-high 18 points.

Waxahachie, which had defeated Lake Ridge by six points both times in district play, rallied behind a pair of threes by Trae Nunn and King Grace to take a 13-12 lead with 3:01 left in the first quarter.

“We had been hearing all week that it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same year,” said Mitchell. “But I told the kids that it’s not really that hard to beat a team three times if you’re not tougher, better, and more locked in. Tonight we were just more locked in and more focused than we had been the last two.”

The game went back and forth from that point until late in the first half when the Indians took a 10-point lead, 41-31. Isayah Pankey had back-to-back threes to cap the 9-0 run for Hachie.

But the Eagles cut the lead to 41-36 at the half when McMillian buried one of his four three-pointers and Ahmare Rose, who finished with 13 points, got a put back with 10 seconds remaining before the break.

The Eagles did a great job of limiting Waxahachie’s 6-9 forward, Parker Jefferson, to just 13 points on the night.

“That was a key,” said Mitchell of Jefferson, the 14th ranked player in the state in the Class of 2025. “We knew that if he got going and got 20 points that they were going to be hard to beat. So our style of play, up and down, wore him down and we made him guard different actions to get him away from the paint and I think got to him a little bit.”

Grace, the fourth-ranked player in the state in the Class of 2025 and the fourth-ranked shooting guard nationally, led the Indians with 16 points followed by Pankey with 14.

Alexander finished with 17 points for Lake Ridge with Eze Nwakamma adding 14 for the Eagles, who finished 3rd in District 11-6A. Waxahachie was co-district champions with Duncanville.

“We’re relentless,” said Mitchell of his team. “We don’t care who you are. We’re going to come in and fight for four quarters and throw a lot of punches and hopefully one of them gets you.”