Lovelady Takes Down Slocum in Playoff Seeding Game
Lions 53 Mustangs 37
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – The final standings in District 20-3A showed the Grapeland Sandies winning the championship with a 12-0 record. That was no great surprise as it was their 14th consecutive title.
The second spot, however, showed a three-way tie between Centerville, Lovelady and Slocum – all with identical 8-4 marks. As a result, play-in games were needed to determine which team would enter the postseason as the second, third and fourth seeds out of the district.
Centerville was lucky enough to be the odd team out and was scheduled to play against the winner of a game between Lovelady and Slocum. The loser of the Lovelady vs. Slocum game would enter the playoffs as the number four seed out of District 20-2A.
The winner between the Lions and Mustangs would play on Friday against the Tigers to determine the second seed while the loser of the Friday game would be the third seed.
Considering the rivalry between Grapeland and Lovelady and Grapeland and Slocum, it was a little ironic the contest between Lovelady and Slocum was held on the home court of the Sandies, but on Thursday that’s exactly what happened.
The Lions jumped out to an early lead, only to see the Mustangs trim a double-digit lead down to four mid-ways through the third quarter. Lovelady, however, managed to hold off the Slocum charge and in the end the Lions pulled away to win the game by a final of 53-37.
As the game got underway, the Lions opened up on fire from the field and took an 18-11 lead after the first eight minutes of play. Slade Murray dropped in five for Lovelady in the early going while Caleb Gilchrist and Shaun Easterling had four apiece. Keivon Skinner drained a three while Skylar Pipkin converted a pair of free throws to round out the Lions’ scoring in the quarter.
Ryan LaRoche kept the Mustangs in the contest with a pair of three-pointers in the first period while Lex Rich added three points and Mark Guess had two.
The frantic pace of the first quarter slowed down somewhat in the second. Gilchrist, however, caught fire for Lovelady and poured in eight points. Blake Patrick hit a shot from behind the arc. Easterling worked inside for a basket and Dayvion Skinner made one of two from the charity stripe to help the Lions take a 32-24 lead into the locker room at the half.
LaRoche stayed hot for Slocum as he added another six to his total. Rich scored three more while Guess and Jesse Pierce chipped in two apiece to close out the first half scoring for the Mustangs.
After the break, Slocum’s Jose Molina began to assert his dominance inside. Molina had been saddled with foul trouble in the first half but dropped in six points early in the third quarter to help trim the Lovelady lead to only four.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, Molina didn’t get much help in the period as the only other Slocum players to score were Rich with two and Conner Vickers with one.
As the Lions’ lead started to shrink, Murray began to heat up for Lovelady as the senior dropped in six. Gilchrist netted five more to help push the margin into double digits. Jayton Crawford canned a shot from downtown while Easterling added a basket to move the Lovelady lead out to 48-33 with one quarter remaining.
The fourth quarter saw both teams go cold from the floor as there were only nine combined points from the two teams. Gilchrist made three of four from the line for Lovelady while K. Skinner added two more to help the Lions secure a 53-37 victory.
Molina was the only Mustang to score in the final period of play as he dropped in four points.
On the game, Slocum was led in scoring by Ryan LaRoche with 12 points. Jose Molina was also in double-figures with 10. Lex Rich went for eight, Mark Guess had four, Jesse Pierce had two and Conner Vickers added one to account for the Slocum point production.
Caleb Gilchrist paced the Lions with a game-high 20 points while Slade Murray had 11. Shaun Easterling dropped in eight while Keivon Skinner had five. Both Jayton Crawford and Blake Patrick hit from three-point land while Skylar Pipkin was two-for-two from the line. Rounding out the Lovelady scoring, Dayvion Skinner had one.
The loss means Slocum will enter the postseason as the number four seed out of District 20-2A. They will now face the LaPoynor Flyers in the Bi-District round of the playoffs. The game is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 21 at New Summerfield High School. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 pm.
With the win, Lovelady moved to its second play-in game, however, as of press time, the final score from the Lions’ game against Centerville was unavailable.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
