The boys basketball team finished off its season 12-18, going 7-8 in district and making the playoffs despite starting the season 2-5. After winning a play-in game versus West Mesquite for the fourth seed in the playoffs last Friday night, the Leopards fell to the 13th ranked Sulphur Springs Wildcats on Tuesday night by a score of 27-50.
“I think what we did as a team was great,” sophomore Kolby McSpadden said. “We fought through adversity when we were losing those games, then in the second round of district, we matured and realized what it took to come away with those wins.”
After being down by only one point at halftime versus Sulphur Springs, the Leopards struggled to contain them in the second half, allowing 33 points.
“We decided we were going to try to shorten the game down, keeping it as tight as possible by putting pressure on them,” head coach Kyle Herrema said. “For a half, we did that really well and even in parts of the third quarter. However, they got a couple clean looks, and we had a couple turnovers that hurt us. We were down eight [points] after three [quarters], but they took control at the end of the game.”
Only losing two seniors this year, Marlon Esteves and Jace Berryman, the program’s future looks incredibly bright according to Herrema.
“We are going to have a very veteran group next year, with a lot of varsity starts under our belt,” Herrema said. “I think we have a lot of leadership coming back. If we have a completely healthy team next year, then it will make a big difference, and we should have a really special year.”
