On a night where everything came together in unison, with the senior night festivities, the first game in the recently finished arena, riding the heels of a district championship, the Coppell Cowboys boys basketball team (23-5, 9-1 District 7-6A) was destined to put on a show on their brand new stage.

And put on a show they did, lighting up the LED scoreboard hanging from the center of the facility, finishing off their final home game of the season with a 50-33 victory over Colleyville Heritage (5-15, 2-7).

The facility, after it was unable to be finished before the girls basketball senior night, was completed Tuesday. Finishing touches, including cleaning and clearing out the parking lot, were made just in time for this game to be played.

“It’s storybook stuff, man,” Coppell coach Kit Pehl said. “It’s pretty neat. This week was pretty crazy. It was pretty far from routine, which I’m not real fired up about, but we shot the ball great, and we were excited to be here. The guys had a ton of energy. It was a fun night.”

With the crowd roaring, and the student section on the baseline as big as it has been all year, the Cowboys came out firing straight from the opening tip. After senior guard Alex Vuchkov hit a couple early threes and Coppell got out in front of the Heritage in defense, they took a commanding lead early, going up at one point 20-4.

“It was awesome,” senior guard Josh Fink said. “It was the perfect ending to four years in the Coppell basketball program. The arena is incredible, the student section was bezerk, it was awesome. Our team played well. It was just an incredible atmosphere and it’s a great way to go out.”

The Cowboys simply could not miss from any spot on the floor in the first quarter, including nailing three 3-pointers. All the energy and excitement continued to grow with the Cowboys’ lead.

“They just channelled [the energy] into shots,” Pehl said. “Making shots was just so big. And their energy, they were over the top fired up to be here, and it definitely showed.”

In addition to shooting one of their best quarters of the season, Coppell came out playing some of the best defense its played all year. A corner trap system worked to perfection, forcing many turnovers from the Heritage offense. The Cowboys were almost always able to capitalize with quick transition points.

“We’re a [multi-faceted] team,” Pehl said. “We can score different ways, and we can defend different ways. The good thing about that is, no matter what’s presented to us, we’re going to have an opportunity to compete. That was on display this evening.”

Before the buzzer sounded for halftime, freshman guard Tariq Aman scored all seven of the Cowboys’ second quarter points, including adding two more 3-pointers to Coppell’s total.

“It feels special,” Aman said. “I wanted our seniors to play in an atmosphere like this and the arena like this. I didn’t expect it to be like this though, this is great.”

For much of the second half, the Cowboys had it on cruise control, maintaining their lead with ease. A run early on in the fourth quarter from the Panthers was halted after 3-pointers from junior forward Sam Marshall and junior guard Keegan Reese.

After the one game in the new arena, the Cowboys play their final game of the year at Haltom, then move on to a first round playoff matchup against Duncanville for the second year in a row. Going into next Tuesday’s game, Coppell will have won 10 out of their last 11 games. It looks as if for this team, everything’s coming together at exactly the right time.

“Momentum is everything,” Pehl said. “When you feel like things are going right, they are. Maintaining that with intent is just what we’re going to happen to do. That happens in practice, not by accident. You have got to practice with intent, and that’ll show up in games. That’s what we want to do.”