By John Loop
Sports Writer

It did not take senior guard Walter Munnings and the Coppell Cowboys (12-15, 1-3 in district) long to realize how good of a player Hebron senior point guard Ridge Shipley was.

“Around this district, [Shipley] is the defensive assignment that we look forward to,” Munnings said. “Coming into the game, I was looking forward to trying to shut him down, but he can shoot lights out; he wants to pull up; he wants to challenge.”

Shipley, a Cal-Poly signee, finished with 22 points to lead the Hebron Hawks (26-2, 4-0 in district) to a three-point victory over the Cowboys, 50-47.

The first quarter looked as it has all season, with Shipley leading the Hawks on the break. The quarter ended in a seven-pont advantage for Hebron, 11-4.

In the second quarter, the pace of the game picked up, behind the play of junior forward Simi Socks. After playing in a three-game long shooting slump, Socks finished with 16 points to lead the Cowboys.

“We really challenged him coming into this game to maximize his efforts when he has an opportunity and he did that tonight,” Coppell head coach Kit Pehl said of Socks’ breakout performance. “We are obviously a much better team when he maximizes his opportunities instead of settling.”

More help came from an unlikely character in freshman point guard Josh Fink.

Playing in his third game on the varsity level, Fink was a mainstay on the court for the majority of the game and was quite effective, scoring his first varsity bucket.

“I knew both [junior guard] Clay [Kemp] and Walter were playing a jam role [to stop Hebron transition game],” Pehl said. “I knew that Josh and [junior guard] Landon [Goesling] would take the point for the bulk of the game. Obviously guarding No. 10 (Shipley) requires a lot of energy, and Clay and Walter were, kind of, the designated guy to get that done, so [I played Fink] to get the ball out of Landon’s hands some, so he did not have to have it in his hands the whole game. I knew that Fink would be playing the amount of minutes he did, and I do not even know of he had a turnover.”

The Cowboys found themselves down only six points, 23-17, at the half after a buzzer beating lay-up by junior guard Cody Carver, and Coach Pehl’s fiery halftime speech got the team going to spark a rally in the third quarter.

“[Coach] said if we kept doing what we were doing, we would be right in this game,” Munnings said. “[Hebron] was vulnerable and we had drawn blood, especially at the end [of the half] with the big shot by Cody Carver.”

Yet another fourth quarter meltdown allowed Shipley and the Hawks to jump right back in front of Coppell on the scoreboard. Cowboys now have lost nine out of 16 games decided by less than 10 points (7-9).

Pehl thinks that some things need to change to keep fourth quarter leads from becoming losses in the standings.

“Being strong with the basketball,” Pehl said. “It was a major emphasis coming into this game. I feel like, with some of our early district opponents, playing the caliber of game we play, we are going to be fine.”

It better be fine, because with a Flower Mound Jaguars team that embraces the perimeter shot coming to town on Friday night, the Cowboys defensive effort will need to remain as stout as it has been all year.

“They shoot lots and lots of threes and they push the ball up the floor really hard, so we are going to have our hands full with guarding them on the perimeter, but I think they are going to have their hands full with guarding us inside,” Pehl said. “It will be a tale of two teams, so we will see which kind of basketball prevails.”

Though the effort fell short, Coppell is in a good spot, according to Pehl.

“The mood of our locker room was, nobody likes losing in there,” Pehl said. “We feel alot better about things right now than we did after our two district losses.”