By the end of the third quarter, the Coppell boys basketball team was 13 points ahead of Horn, but by the end of the game, the Cowboys won by two.
On Tuesday, Coppell defeated Horn, 57-55, at CHS Arena.
“Tonight was a game of runs,” Coppell coach Clint Schnell said. “We started off great, which was a nice spark. But I knew that they were going to come back, they’re a really good offensive team and have four of their five starters back from last year so I knew they would fight their way back in it.”
With seven seconds left on the clock and trailing by two, Horn senior guard Kris Williams. Williams opted to dish the ball out to junior guard Montreal Chalmers, waiting at the 3-point line, as all five Coppell players converged the potential tying layup.
Chalmers stepped aside from Coppell’s Arhan Lapsiwala as he closed in to contest the shot, but missed the 3-pointer. Williams was unable to get a shot off the rebound as time expired.
The arena comes to a roar as time expires in the game, Coppell narrowly victorious.
“I was proud of our guys for never letting Horn completely close the gap,” Schnell said. “Even when they made their run and got back in it, we still kept them at arm’s length, fought through their runs and hung onto the lead.”
Coppell senior forward Antonio Romo is working on fixing small mistakes. Schnell said that last night’s game was a step in the right direction for the team, with the District 6-6A opener on Tuesday against Lewisville.
“We’ve had a good start to the year and there have been a lot of positives but when you get into district play, things get turned up another level,” Schnell said. “So some of those mistakes that didn’t hurt you as much earlier in the year now mean a lot more in those district games and so we’re trying to clean those up but tonight we did a really good job of that.”
On Thursday, the Cowboys travel to the Pflugerville Holiday Classic where they will play at least three games, beginning with Manor at 6 p.m.
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