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One tough night: Resilient Lovejoy undone by Seguin in physical third round
By Richard C. White, rwhite@starlocalnews.com
COPPELL -- Despite an admirable effort that would produce a win in most games, the Lovejoy boys basketball team came up on the losing end of a hyper-aggressive regional quarterfinals matchup Tuesday night, falling 49-35 to Arlington Seguin from Coppell High School.
"I thought we really played well in so many different phases tonight," said Kyle Herrema, Lovejoy head coach. "It's hard to replicate their speed in practice, but I'll tell you, we played a gutsy game and you can't be prouder of a group of kids than that."
Turnovers hurt the Leopards the most, costing them countless scoring opportunities.
Trevor Eckard led Lovejoy in scoring with 16 points.
"It starts with our captain Trevor," Herrema said. "He selflessly does whatever this team needs and he doesn't get enough acclaim."
Also contributing for the Leopards was Jake Flaggert with seven points and Jordan Reed with five points.
Seguin out-muscled and out-ran Lovejoy with its aggressive play that included several noteworthy dunks and blocked shots sprinkled throughout the game. It wasn't so much what the Leopards didn't do as it was what the Cougars did well.
"We knew they were super aggressive on the glass, so we were trying to block out," Herrema said. "The strength and physicality of the game didn't bother us. It was just their quickness and leaping ability that kind of hurt us."
The Cougars jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start, causing Lovejoy to call a timeout a little more than a minute into the game.
The Leopards, though, were resilient and stayed with their opponent, but Seguin's sheer athleticism made it difficult. The Cougars had three dunks in just the first quarter.
Things would go from bad to worse for the Leopards in the first half of the second quarter as the Cougars capitalized off their physical play to gain even more breathing room. Seguin led by 12 late in the second before Lovejoy staged a run of its own to cut five points off of the Cougars lead for the 26-19 halftime score.
"In the first quarter we just had some nerves," Herrema said. "It took us a bit to adjust to their speed and once we did that, we settled in for a bit and had some good runs."
The game continued its hard-fought seesaw nature as Seguin again built its lead back up to more than 12 before Lovejoy again scraped back to cut it to five late in the third quarter.
"We knew they were going to be able to go on some runs because of their speed," Herrema said. "They had some things we thought we could attack. We had some good looks going the other way. That back and forth style is the nature of the game this late in the year."
The Cougars hung on to take a 35-27 edge into the final frame.
The game was one of constant momentum swings and the Cougars managed to have their fourth quarter swing last longer than the Leopards' most recent run as Seguin again gradually distanced itself from Lovejoy with a double-digit lead.
The Cougars controlled the tempo the rest of the way to secure the victory and end Lovejoy's playoff run.
Although their season may be over, Herrema couldn't be prouder of the team's seven seniors, players whom he said were a joy to coach all year.
"This senior class, they hung tough," he said. "They battled all night. This is a tight group of kids. There's no animosity, no selfishness on this team and I couldn't ask for a better group to coach."
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