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FORT WORTH — You know that a game is expected to be a good one when it is moved in expectation of a large crowd.
That’s exactly what happened with the matchup between two highly ranked ball clubs, as the Dunbar Wildcats (8-4, No. 4 in 4A according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ poll) beat the North Crowley Panthers (9-4, No. 4 in 5A in TABC poll), 99-96, on a last second three-pointer at the Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center on Wednesday.
The game had originally been scheduled for North Crowley’s gym two nights before, but the teams arranged to move the game to accomodate a larger crowd.
Dunbar jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter thanks to some cold shooting and badly executed offense by the Panthers.
Chris Roberts scored six of his team-high 27 in the quarter, as the Wildcats were ahead, 22-13, after the first eight minutes.
North Crowley’s offense began to get its act together in the second quarter. Willie Warren scored half of the team’s 26 in the quarter, but it wasn’t all a smooth ride for the Panthers, as Dunbar went on a 9-0 in the middle of the quarter to stretch their lead to 13 with about three minutes until the break.
But the Panthers roared back on an 10-2 run of thier own to pull back to a seven-point margin at the half.
After the beginning of the second half, North Crowley put together an impressive, although not perfect, quarter.
Warren scored 16 of the Panthers’ 30 in the quarter, as North Crowley pulled to within one point before the fourth started, as Dunbar led, 70-69.
The Panthers erased that deficit with a 11-2 run to open the final stanza, with Warren scoring the first seven on a triple, two free throw and a jam, while Kelvin Lewis added the other four points in the run.
North Crowley extended their lead to as many as nine, thanks to another Warren trey en route to a game-high 41 points. But six points from DeAndre Brown pulled Dunbar back to a 92-90 difference with 46 seconds to go.
Lewis scored four of the next six to put North Crowley up, 96-92. Brown scored a bucket with 10 seconds to play, and North Crowley’s Jason Fox was called for a foul on the ensuing inbounds play to give the Wildcats two free throws with eight seconds to play. Cortney Hill sank both opportunities from the charity stripe to tie the game up at 96-96 with eight seconds to play.
After a series of timeouts, North Crowley finally inbounded the ball. But Lewis turned the ball over out of bounds in front of the Dunbar bench with six seconds left.
Brown caught the inbounds pass far from shooting range, but drove towards his end quickly, pulled up from about 20 feet out and shot the jumper to put the crowd in suspense. The shot found nothing but net, as the clock hit all zeroes, and the Wildcats celebrated.
North Crowley head coach Tommy Brakel felt that although his team made a comeback to get n the game after an early deficit, there were plenty of things the Panthers could have done to win the game.
“We just made too many dumb plays tonight,” Brakel said. “It wasn’t one shot at the end that lost the game. It was the five missed alley-oops, it was the poor shot selection in some places and it was not being where we were supposed to be on the press break.
“When you’re up by four with a minute to play, you shouldn’t even give them enough possessions to catch up, and we did,” Brakel added.
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Dunbar 99, North Crowley 96
DUNBAR (8-4): Chris Roberts 27, DeAndre Brown 26, Nathan Murray 11, Cortney Hill 10, Donald Broughton 9, DeJuan Freeman 8, Brandon Criss 4, Horace Hicks 3, Marqus Fitchett 1.
NORTH CROWLEY (9-4): Willie Warren 41, Kelvin Lewis 23, Ronnie Moss 12, Keinon Collins 10, Tyler Jefferson 5, Montrell Donnell 2, Jason Fox 2, Cletis Hubbard 1.
Dunbar.......................22 26 22 29—99
North Crowley.......13 28 30 25—96
Halftime score: Dunbar 48, North Crowley 41. Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: Dunbar 7 (Broughton 3, Brown 2, Hicks 1, Roberts 1), North Crowley 7 (Warren 5, Lewis 2). Rebounds: Dunbar 34 (Murray, Roberts 8), North Crowley 38 (Moss 9). Assists: Dunbar 12 (Roberts 6), North Crowley 18 (Moss 8). Steals: Dunbar 10 (Hill 3), North Crowley 8 (Warren 3). Blocked shots: Dunbar 1 (Murray 1), North Crowley 3 (Collins 3). Technical fouls: none. Total fouls: Dunbar 24, North Crowley 22. Turnovers: Dunbar 11, North Crowley 15.
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