The concept of playing without your star player is a daunting one for some teams. Despite playing without three-star senior guard Ryan Agarwal, the Coppell basketball team didn’t skip a beat and thrived in a district clash.

“It’s the ‘next man up’ mentality,” Coppell coach Clint Schnell said. “We’ve  had games where our guys have gotten hurt before, we haven’t had to face it a lot this year. It’s a long season and it’s bound to happen. I couldn’t be more proud of the guys [for coming in and stepping up]. The team played really well together and we’re better as a team than any one individual anyway.”

Coppell defeated Lewisville, 69-49, on Friday at CHS Arena.

The Cowboys (16-8, 3-0 in District 6-6A) set the tone early by roaring to a 13-4 lead at the end of the first quarter. Senior guard Naz Brown used his athleticism to score from all over the court by shifting, cutting and finding lanes to drive and score while senior point guard Devank Rane scored a pair of free throws and drained a 3-pointer for the Cowboys.

“We definitely needed that tone setter to get us going for this game,” Rane said. “We talked about it before the game. If we set the tone early then we’re a hard team to come back from. If that’s what we do then the score [tells] the story; we won by 20 and they never had a shot from the start.”

The second quarter was more closely contested by the Fighting Farmers (11-11, 1-2). The Cowboys took a 33-23 lead into halftime after sophomore guard Alex Tung scored a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. 

The Cowboys increased their lead to 15 points in the third quarter behind strong game execution and playmaking from Rane. Rane scored a three-pointer to give the Cowboys a 44-29 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Fighting Farmers started clawing their way back into the game with five consecutive 3-point plays in the fourth quarter. With two minutes remaining in the game, things got chippy between the Cowboys and the Fighting Farmers. 

A Fighting Farmer took a hit to the face in game action and retaliated. When stopped by the referee, he swung at the referee as well. Play was halted momentarily while the referees assessed the right calls for each team. The Fighting Farmers were awarded two free throws while being issued five technical fouls and three ejections. The Cowboys were rewarded 10 free throws, which Rane made nine of.

“The biggest thing in that moment for our team is that you don’t want to do something that is going to compromise the bigger picture,” Schnell said. “Keep your head in that moment, don’t do something that is going to penalize us and put us in a compromised situation. [Friday], we did a character study on focusing on the main thing and not letting little things eat you up and distract you from that. In that moment, our guys did a good job not getting caught up in the craziness.”

Rane finished with 21 points while Brown chipped in 18 points and Tung added 12 points in the absence of Agarwal.

“[Rane] led our team perfectly and he executed the game plan which helped us a lot,” Brown said. “He stepped up as a leader and then everyone else stepped up.”

 The Cowboys host Plano East at CHS Arena at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

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