Antonian Falls to Prestwood Christian 59 - 67

BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com

Published: Saturday, February 19, 2011 6:50 PM CST

The Prestonwood Christian Academy boys basketball team has been known to run opposing teams ragged a time or two.  In some cases, the Lions transition game can resemble five gazelles scampering past a herd of sheep.  At times, visiting Antonian Prep fell into the category of the latter as a second-quarter surge erased a brief Apache lead in Saturdays area-round TAPPS 5A Div. I playoff matchup and spearheaded an eventual 67-59 win for the Lions.

There were two stretches where [Antonian] had to call several timeouts, said Brad Freeman, Prestonwood head coach, where we were playing as good as I've ever seen a team play. Our transition game was absolutely phenomenal during those stretches.  After the Apaches erased an early 13-6 Prestonwood lead following a 3-pointer by Jonathan Holmes that capped a 7-0 Antonian run, the teams proceeded to trade the lead four times before the Lions shifted out of first gear.

Six straight points from sophomore Julius Randle, the last of which was a fastbreak dunk off an assist from sophomore Marquan Botley, turned a 16-15 Lion deficit into a 21-16 Prestonwood lead.  Eight more unanswered Prestonwood points were poured on, all of which were triggered in transition. Junior Zach Peters slung home a fadeaway from the elbow, junior Austin Rettig finished a pair of layups and Botley dumped in a floater to leave the Apaches staring at a 29-18 deficit by the end of the first half.

Randle led all scorers with 29 points and 16 rebounds, with Botley and Peters chipping in 14 and 10, respectively.  Antonian made Prestonwood work in the second half though, drawing to within seven points at 33-26 before yielding another torrid Lions run that spilled into the fourth quarter and allowed for a 47-30 Prestonwood cushion.

We put our best defender on [Holmes] in Aaron Wyatt, Freeman said. They both play in and out, so it was a pretty good matchup even though he had a couple inches on Aaron. [Wyatt] did a great job on him, though.

But after three quarters of helming the Apaches offense, Holmes got the needed support to draw an eerie silence from around the Prestonwood gym as Antonian rattled off 31 points in the fourth quarter, more than doubling its combined output from the previous three stanzas.  Holmes added seven points in the final frame, the last of which was an exclamation point dunk before bowing out of the game due to fouls, while Eric Garza chipped in all nine of his points in the fourth quarter.

But Prestonwood's lead never shrunk below six points at 59-53, as the Lions found themselves in the bonus with just under five minutes to play and capitalized to the tune of 16 free throws on 19 attempts in the fourth quarter alone.  The win advances the Lions to the regional quarterfinals, where they will host district bunkmate Bishop Lynch on Saturday at a time to be determined.

Prestonwood secured a regular season sweep of Lynch, besting the Friars to the tune of 90-57 and 81-58.