By John Loop
Sports Editor
Simi Socks has known Myles Turner as a good friend for six years, but that friendship turned into an on-court rivalry on Tuesday night.
“[It was like] just playing with an old friend of mine,” Socks said. “I’ve known him six years. I know a couple of his moves, you know, its was just a great one-on-one matchup.”
Though Turner had 13 points and nine rebounds, Socks got the better of the pair, helping the Coppell Cowboys (22-12) past the Euless Trinity Trojans (24-5), 47-43, in the bi-district round of the UIL basketball playoffs.
Socks, Coppell’s senior post, had ten points, while senior guard Landon Goesling led the team with 11 points and four assists.
Coppell started the game off strong, compiling a 9-0 run before Trinity used a 9-4 spurt of their own to make things a little unnerving going into the second quarter.
That’s when Adrian Wong took over. The Trinity senior guard scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the second quarter to push the Trojan’s lead to 23-21 just before halftime.
Goesling proceeded to knock down a 30-foot heave at the buzzer to take the Cowboys into the locker room leading by one.
“It was definitely a momentum swing,” Goesling said. “They went on a major run and were up two and that shot put us up by 1 at half. It definitely shifted the momentum on e the court, in the stands and in the locker room.”
In the third quarter, Turner threw down two thunderous dunks that pushed the Trojan lead to five. But Coppell countered right back with eight clutch free throws (six from senior guard Brandon Watson)in the fourth quarter put the game away.
“What is funny is that everybody who went to the line are people that we have a lot of confidence in,” Coppell head coach Kit Pehl said. “I mean, Brandon Watson, I don’t think he hit the rim on any of those.”
The Cowboys, after forcing Turner, the nation’s No. 2 overall prospect, to make a college decision much sooner than he had hoped, now set their sights on another big man, Duncanville’s Omar Sharman, as they take on the Panthers on Friday. At press time, location and game time were still to be determined.
