By John Loop
Sports Writer

The pressure is on for the Coppell Cowboys to hand Duncanville their second loss of the basketball season.

Coppell (4-4) enters tonight’s game against the Panthers (12-1) with two goals in mind: offensive rebounding and the transition game.

“Coach calls it the ‘games within the game’,” junior guard Brandon Watson said. “If we beat them on the transition side of the ball and the offensive boards, then he says we should have a pretty good shot.”

The Cowboys put on a defensive clinic against the Allen Eagles last Tuesday, who lost barely to the Panthers last Thursday, 44-42.

The Panthers, however, have lit up the scoreboard since the start of the 2012-2013 season, scoring over 50 points in nine of their first 13 games.

With this in mind, junior point guard Landon Goesling knows the Cowboys will have their work cut out for them defensively.

“We just need to stick to our defensive gameplan,” Goesling said. “If we play defense like we did against Allen, I think we have a chance to beat any team in this area. Coach Pehl has got a strict defensive standard for us. If we can come out and execute defensively, I think it will give us a great chance to win the game.”

With only one player under six feet tall, Duncanville presents a challenge to a Coppell team that they have dealt with all year: being small.

“They double the post [in their defensive scheme], so that might be a problem for us,” Watson said. “We have to box out since we are a smaller team.”

Coppell’s roster only includes one player taller than six-foot-five, junior post Simi Socks, who is officially listed at 6’6″. The roster also highlights four guards under six feet: Watson (5’10”), fellow junior Clay Kemp (5’9″), as well as seniors Vivek Prasad (5’11”) and Walter Munnings (5’10).

Nevertheless, it seems that the Cowboys have been able to overcome a sizeable difference in height to attain a .500 winning percentage.

Herubin caught in quick transition

Just recently, junior forward John Herubin was called up to play on the Cowboy’s varsity basketball team. The six foot four inch tall, 225 pound junior will be taking the court with the varsity team as of Nov. 26 after the football season came to an unfortunate close.

Herubin has been working extremely hard and has really been able to take his skill from the field (Herubin was a starting inside linebacker) to the court in the transition from sport to sport. The team will be taking on Duncanville tonight at 7:30 so make sure you come out and support Herubin and the rest of the varsity squad.

-Tanner McCord