Texline’s William Luther drives to the basket against Irion County during a UIL Class 1A state tournament semifinal game in San Antonio’s Alamodome on Thursday. [Naomi Skinner/ For Press Pass Sports]
SAN ANTONIO— Texline took a step closer to defending its state championship crown handling Irion County 58-42 in a 2022 UIL Class 1A state basketball tournament semifinal in the Alamodome on Thursday morning.
“I felt like we had more pressure in Levelland than we did here in San Antonio,” Texline head coach Coby Beckner said. “Levelland is a hard place for us to play, and the expectation to get back here was enormous. But I thought we played really good and relaxed today (Thursday) especially in the second half.”
The Tornadoes (34-3) had to overcome a competitive first half, as well as foul trouble. Texline took a 26-20 advantage into halftime despite having to sit star players William Luther and Noel Lozano in the final four minutes of the second quarter due to foul trouble.
“We’ve never sat Will and Noel at the same time.” Beckner said. “Our bench did a great job and we were able to hang on to the lead. That was huge with our two senior leaders in foul trouble.”
The third quarter Texline took over with stellar shooting. Junior Stratton Potter knocked down an early 3-pointer jumping the lead 29-20. After. Luther 3-ball from the right wing, Potter buried his second three in two minutes as the Tornadoes exploded to a 38-22 advantage.
Before Thursday, Potter had been in a frustrating shooting slump, but broke out in more than a big way at the right time.
“It felt so good to finally knock down some shots “Potter said. “I had yet to make a 3-pointer in the playoffs. I have tried not to let it get to me. I’ve been continuing to put up shots in the gym and just stay focused.”
Potter scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half on 6-of-11 shooting, and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Texline showed its depth offensively with Luther only scoring nine and Lozano 11 with Elias Espino also stepping up with 16 points (4-of-7 from 3-point range).
“Texline is extremely tough to defend,” Irion County head coach John Morrow said. “There’s Luther, and Lozano than can play inside and outside. Then there’s two or three other guys like this game that can go off on you at any time. That makes it real difficult.”
Inside the boxscore
Texline led for 27 of the 32 minutes of the contest against the Hornets (33-4 overall). The Tornadoes shot 19-of-48 from the field (39 percent), however, a blistering 9-of-20 from downtown. Texline forced 17 turnovers scoring 15 points off those Hornet mistakes.
Up next
Texline will play Graford (36-3) for the UIL Class 1A state championship at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. If the Tornadoes win they’ll be the first Texas Panhandle team to go back-to-back since Canadian in 2014-2015.
For a look at the full boxscore from the semifinals, please click the link below.