Summit rolls past Timberview for a third time in a Mansfield cross-town showdown

It’s always difficult to defeat a team three times in the same season as the Mansfield Summit boys basketball team was tasked with on Tuesday night in facing district and cross-town rival Mansfield Timberview.

But the Jaguars were up to the task and even made it look easy.

The Wolves made a game of it early, but in the end Summit, No. 11 in the final Class 5A state poll put out by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, ran away with a 61-37 win in a 5A Region I quarterfinal at Mansfield High School.

“These guys have been here and have been around the block,” said Summit coach Emund Prichett, whose team defeated Timberview by 30 and 20 points in two district games this season. “I knew they were going to be a special group when they came in and if anybody could do it these guys could do it. They’re resilient and they’re tough.”

Summit (32-4) will head to the 5A Region I tournament in Wichita Falls where it will take its third consecutive crack at No. 7 Amarillo (33-4) in the regional semifinals. The Sandies, who defeated Summit 72-65 a year ago and 60-51 in 2021 in the same round, will face off with the Jags at 4 p.m. on Friday at the Yeager Coliseum.

No. 9 Fort Worth Wyatt (20-10) will meet No. 18 El Paso Chapin (29-6) in the second semifinal at 6 p.m.

“The experience we have with all our seniors is really important,” said Summit guard David Terrell one of five seniors on the team, four of which get the majority of the playing time. “We’ve been there against Amarillo and we play them in the next round so it should really be a good game.”

It was a bit of the changing of the guard as Timberview (19-15) has been one of the most dominate teams in the state in Class 5A in recent history.

The Wolves won titles in 2017 and 2019, reached the state semifinals in 2020 and were just about to take the court when the tournament was canceled due to the covid outbreak. Timberview was the state runner up a year ago.

The Wolves raced out to an early 8-2 lead on a lay in and then three pointer both by Christian Jones in front of another three by Tyler Turner at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter.

The Jaguars took an 11-10 lead on a basket by Richard Lemboye off an assist by Terrell with 1:18 left in the first quarter. Summit would never trail again.

Terrell and Lemboye took the game over early in the second quarter. Five of Terrell’s seven first-half assists were to Terrell for point blank shots under the basket. The duo sparked a 14-2 run to give Summit a 30-16 lead with 33 seconds left in the first half.

“It’s tought and I’m glad I don’t have to stop it,” said Prichett of his dynamic duo. “I get to watch it in motion and I don’t have to stop it and it’s a tough thing to stop. They’ve been playing together for a long time, they’re buddies and they trust each other.”

“Richard [Lemboye] and I have been playing together since about the second grade and it feels great to be playing with him still,” said Terrell. “It’s fun playing against those guys over at Timberview. I talk to them every day so it’s fun competing with them.”

Frenck Emmou privided the scoring punch for Summit with a game-high 27, while Terrell provided the spark. Terrell finished with eight assists to go with 10 rebounds, but his three electrifying dunks, as part of his 10-point scoring night, got the crowd in a frenzy.

Lemboye provided the assist on Terrell’s first flush during the 14-2 run that gave the Jags a 20-14 lead. Terrell tomahawked another one down with 58 seconds left in the third quarter to put Summit up 41-27.

Timberview cut the lead to 11 with 7:19 left in the game on a basket by Turner, but Emmou scored 13 points the rest of the way, seven from the free throw line, to put the game out of reach.

Terrell put an exclamation point on the game getting free and driving down the lane for a dunk to provide the final margin.

Lemboye had 18 points for the Jaguars while Emmou pulled down seven boards. Turner finished with 16 points while Jones chipped in 11 for Timberview.

“We had more adversity than anybody knows and even anyone around us knows,” said Timberview coach Matt Workman whose in his first year at the helm of the Wolves after being a long-time assistant at Timberview. “We graduated everybody. We’re super young, but we still had a few really good seniors this year that kept us going for us to get this far.”

Workman pointed out that his team was 5-12 at one point and that pretty much everyone had counted them out, except for the group in the Timberview locker room.

His team had its ups and downs, but bought in and decided to fight and went 14-3 the rest of the way.

“There’s probably only four or five more teams at Timberview that have done more than this team has done,” said Workman. “They kept the bar high. The few seniors that we had played their butts off. Tyler Turner, Amare Momoh and Xavier Johnson deserve a lot of credit.

“Hats off to Summit, they’re tough and they’re good. We didn’t like the way it ended, but it is what it is. Our future is bright.”