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Top Ten Celina Sports Stories of 2012: 9. Buzzer beaten: Bobcats lose on last-second shot
BY Chris O’Dell, codell@starlocalnews.com
After dropping the second of two matchups against Bonham in district action this season, the Bobcats entered the postseason as the two seed from District 10-3A.
That proved to be costly for Celina, as the Bobcats lost an opening round playoff game against Whitesboro, 58-55, on Monday to end their season in the bi-district round for the second straight year.
“It was a tough game to lose,” said Dusty Hutson, Celina head coach. “But at the same time, our kids played really well.”
“We were just able to own the boards early,” Hutson said. “We were also beating them down the floor in that first quarter.”
Whitesboro made several adjustments after the first eight minutes though and slowly began to turn the game back into its favor.
With a 15-8 advantage in the second, Whitesboro trimmed the deficit to just six points at the break and also carried momentum into its locker room.
“It was a heavy-weight fight between two evenly-matched teams,” Hutson said.
The third quarter was much of the same for both teams, as Celina struggled to find its first-quarter rhythm to allow Whitesboro to cut the lead by another three points.
The 11-8 disparity in the third made the score 41-38 entering the final quarter, as Celina tried to hold on to their slim lead.
“I think it was definitely a mental-fatigue type of game,” Hutson said.
With Whitesboro continuing their comeback in the fourth after falling behind by 13 points in the first quarter, Celina eventually lost their lead.
After trailing nearly the whole way, the Bobcats fell behind with just under a minute remaining in the game and had to have sophomore Deshawn Davis hit a baseline jumper from six feet out to even the score.
The shot, however, gave Whitesboro the final chance at a win and the team made the most of it.
After missing a shot with eight seconds left in the game, an offensive rebound gave Whitesboro one last opportunity and a buzzer-beating three spelled the end of Celina’s season.
“It was just meant to be for them I guess,” Hutson said.
Davis’ game-tying bucket was two of his 11 points to make the sophomore one of four Bobcats in double figures on the night.
Senior T.J. Grant scored a game-high 17 points in the contest with sophmore Braylin Brown and senior Collin Clark adding 10 points each in the losing effort.
“In a lot of ways, we played the best basketball game we’ve played in a long time,” Hutson said. “The kids played outstanding.”
The loss puts Celina’s season record at 18-12 after the Bobcats went through district action with a 6-2 mark.
The team’s only two losses against district foes both came against Bonham, who went unbeaten against District 10-3A counterparts.
It was the second straight year the Bobcats earned second-place honors in the district and the second year in a row that Celina lost in the bi-district round of the playoffs after a 74-53 loss to Sanger last season.
“I was so proud of what we accomplished this year,” Hutson said. “We had a completely different team than we had last year.”
Although the Bobcats will lose seniors Grant, Clark, Justin Davis and Jamarick Simmons, Hutson said the future looks bright for his team.
“We’ve got some good young players,” he said.
Celina’s junior varsity team went 20-1 this season and its freshman squad won 18 of its 19 contests on the year.
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