The Dublin Lions were crowned Area Champions for the first time since 2012 (the third time in 20 years) before ending their season Friday night in Cisco at the Regional Quarterfinals against Peaster.
Dublin Head Basketball Coach Will Parker expressed pride in his players, saying that he knew they had a chance at the playoff in their first game against Comanche in 2021.
This fell in line for Parker and his coaching staff who told the Lions that they needed to be playing their best basketball by mid January.
“We started the year off winning in overtime and without the full team,” he reported. “That was a real turning point for our guys mentally.”
Since COVID quarantines would take players out for a couple of weeks at a time, it was good for players to see how well everyone gelled together and could rely on every one and not just one particular player.
“People call basketball ‘jazz,’” Parker said. “There’s a lot of fluidity of movement and guys need to know where each other are at.”
“Just because you’re missing one player, that gives other players a chance to step up,” Parker said. “That really shows how diverse our bench is.”
He also praised the Dublin players for their refusal to quit even if the other team takes the lead.
This came into play during the Area Championship on Feb. 24 at Brownwood’s Howard Payne University as the Lions were down 12 points to Wall with three minutes left on the clock.
The Lions started closing the gap and found themselves losing 56 to 55 with three seconds left in the game.
A great half court pass by Chris Teten to Christian Ramirez got the Lions within striking distance as timeouts were called with less than two seconds on the clock.
Parker noticed that Wall had switched the lineup, with its tallest player in front of Dalan Rasberry and no one under the rim. Parker switched his call quickly to a lob to Daniel Escobar who ran it under for a buzzer beating 57-56 victory that got all of the Dublin fans on their feet and cheering.
The Lions followed this win with a 93-64 defeat by Peaster on Friday at Cisco in Regional Quarterfinals.
Parker said the team was facing an uphill battle with only a day’s rest and Escobar “banged up” from the past two games.
The Lions still played hard, putting up points through all four periods, even after Peaster took up leads of better than 20 points in the first period.
Parker said everyone, particularly Escobar and Ayush Patel, “played excellent” and he’s excited that the five seniors are leaving on such a high note and eager to see what all of his younger players will do in the years to come.
“We’re telling them, ‘You can be as successful as you want,” Parker said. “It’s out of our control until November. It’s going to take them using what they learned and getting excited about next year.”