On Friday at 7 p.m., the Coppell boys basketball team seeks to challenge the top team in Texas, the Plano East Panthers, at CHS Arena. This will be Coppell’s second meeting with the team this season after a 71-58 loss earlier in the season.
“Going in and playing the No. 1 team in the state, we’re just trying to stay within ourselves, play our game and do what we’ve done,” Coppell coach Clint Schnell said.”We’re on a good streak right now with winning the last two games so we’re just coming in, and trying to focus on what we do and play as clean a game as we can with Plano East.”
Coppell’s philosophy is to play a clean game.
“I think the biggest thing for us is that we’re trying to minimize mistakes,” Schnell said. “Not turn the ball over, try to value possessions and play with the intent that each time we come down [the court] to try to score. We have to find the best shot that we can and maximize the opportunities that we get. We need to stay positive and when something does go wrong we cannot let things snowball into bigger and more mistakes.”
Schnell isn’t putting the fate of the game on any one player, as he thinks all have the potential to have a big game.
“It’s kind of been one of those seasons where each game it feels like there’s just different guys that have stepped up and played big roles just kind of from game to game,” Schnell said. “[Senior guard] Gabe Pehl has been playing really well for us, [junior center] Ethan Macken had a big game for us in this last one against Hebron and [senior forward] Graham Finklea really stepped up and played well. We’ll just kind of see who’s kind of got the hot hand.”
Coppell is keeping an eye on some key Plano East players heading into Friday’s game.
“Their point guard [senior] Isaiah Brewington is really solid and executes what they run really well,” Schnell said. “[Junior center] DJ Hall is their leading scorer and a big threat and [senior shooting guard] Jordan Mizzel is a big scoring threat for us as well. We have to find a way to slow them down and keep them from having big nights.”
Precision on both sides of the ball and maximizing chances are a key part of Coppell’s game strategy.
“We’re going to play our game and we have to play really good defense against them,” Schnell said. “Slow them down and not let them get on any runs and offensively pick our spots and try to find the shots we want to take. We are trying to hang around long enough to give ourselves a chance to win it in the end.”
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