Coppell only lost three games this entire season: two in district play, one in preseason. That one loss in preseason was to Lake Highlands. But as fate would have it, the two meet again in the playoffs.

Coppell (19-3) plays Lake Highlands (18-7) in the Class 6A area playoffs tomorrow at Loos Sports Complex in Addison, with tipoff at 7 p.m.

Entering this game, Coppell will have four days of rest, defeating Allen on Saturday, while Lake Highlands will only have one day of rest, defeating Arlington Lamar on Tuesday. 

“It will play a slight role in our benefit but since it’s a playoff game, no one is really going to be worried about how much rest we got, it’s just going to be in the moment and who wants to win more,” Coppell junior guard Devank Rane said.  

The Cowboys starting five of Coppell junior guards Naz Brown, Ryan Agarwal, Anthony Black, Rane and senior center Tim O’Hearn as well as senior guard KJ Liggins attended the Lake Highlands game against Arlington Lamar to scout out their potential opponents for valuable information that they can use in this game.

“What we are going to try and do is attack their defense and get to the basket because they don’t use a lot of help on defense so we should be able to get to the basket a little more,” Agarwal said. “Defensively, they don’t shoot the ball very well so we’ve been working on containing and not let them get to the basket as much.”

Having been defeated 79-73 to Lake Highlands on Dec. 4, the Cowboys were down three starters when they lost, so they are not afraid of Lake Highlands.. Black and O’Hearn as well as Liggins were out earning a playoff spot for the Coppell football team and Brown was out with a foot injury.

“[Starting the game out strong] is super important because we’re better than Lake Highlands but it is going to come to how we play as a team, not how they play as a team,” Black said.

One point of emphasis for this game is not letting players get into foul trouble early, like Agarwal and Brown did against Allen, forcing one player to put the team on their shoulders.

“Mentally, you have to be locked in,” Agarwal said. “You have to know when to foul, when to at least contest the shot and when to do certain motions that could create a foul. It’s just being mentally locked in for [Brown and I], and [Black] too because there’s been games were he’s gotten out early and we’ve had to play without him so it’s very important that everyone doesn’t unnecessarily foul early so we all can play in the game.”   

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