The TAPPS private school boys and girls basketball tourneys start this week and Houston has some teams with their eyes on the prize. All of them of course, but there are a few who have a legit shot.
Concordia Lutheran is loaded with talent and will cruise in the first round. However, the 'Saders could catch a pretty talented Village School in Round 2, which would be interesting. Guard RJ Keene is averaging just at 20 point pers game followed by Trey Miller and Kenyon Holcombe. Concordia is H-Town's best shot for a Class 6A title.
Westbury Christian is loaded with talent again and are the favorites in Class 5A. The Wildcats ran the table in district and are led by a pair of juniors Chris Felix and Ja'Vier Francis. They are legit.
The boys from up north – The Woodlands Christian Academy – are the favorites in Class 4A. Guard Bakari LaStrap runs the show for coach Tanner Fields, who went unblemished in district play. They went 24-7 on the season.
Tomball Rosehill, Alpha Omega and Baytown Christian are looming in Class 3-1A.
On the girls' side, it's The Village School's Class 6A title to lose. The Village is LOADED… Like REALLY loaded as they pushed their record to 33-3. Jada Malone leads to team. Concordia Lutheran has a shot, but the Vikings are impressive.
Second Baptist and Lutheran South are the Queens of Houston in TAPPS 5A, while Lutheran North carries the torch for Class 4A.
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THE BRACKETS
Lewisville one of the surprise teams in the area
For many teams, Week 3 was the final non-district game. Now, the hunt for the postseason officially begins.
Don’t have a win? At this point, even a team like South Oak Cliff is winless.
Sometimes, the grind to start the season pays off later in the year. Just look at DeSoto last season. The Eagles started 0-2, then won 13 of their next 14 games to capture a state championship.
Here’s a look at some of the things we noticed this week.
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The inaugural Roland Parrish Classic took place Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.
DeSoto rallied to beat Duncanville, 21-20, behind a three-touchdown performance from SaRod Baker. The Texas Tech pledge ran for 122 yards, but perhaps the biggest storyline was where he lined up.
Baker is now QB1 instead of RB1.
He has played quarterback at times in the past, but it will be interesting to see where this goes moving forward.
Baker finished 7-for-13 passing for 86 yards and three interceptions, while Wyatt Davis led the DeSoto rushing attack with 131 yards on 18 carries.
You want your most talented player to have the ball in his hands as much as possible. This is certainly one way to make that happen.
Duncanville trailed 21-7 before scoring twice in the second half, but a blocked PAT ended up being the difference in the game.
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North Shore dominated when it had the ball — and, perhaps most importantly, didn’t turn it over.
The times they did, however, allowed South Oak Cliff to hang around.
Eventually, the Golden Bears surged back to take a 21-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
But on the ensuing drive, the Class 6A Division I state champions rallied to take the lead on a touchdown pass from JaVoris Taylor to Demont Jones.
The Mustangs then came up with a fourth-down stop in the final seconds to hold on for the win.
Two great games. Four elite teams. And, unfortunately, almost no one got to see them.
It would’ve been great to have these two marquee games available for the fans who wanted to watch four elite teams play.
Maybe next year?
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The early portion of the schedule always brings a few surprises — teams and players doing things some of us probably didn’t see coming.
Here are two of them:
Denton and Arlington Sam Houston are both 3-0.
The Denton Broncos are 3-0 for the first time since 2016 after blasting North Garland, 49-6.
Kaiden Credit ran for three touchdowns and caught another in the win.
The Broncos were 4-6 last season and will have a chance to match that win total this week when they face Garland Naaman Forest.
David Beaty, the former Kansas head coach, is turning around a program that went 2-8 before his arrival last year.
Incidentally, Beaty got his coaching start at Naaman Forest back in 1994.
He’s been at Rice, Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas, Florida Atlantic and the Houston Gamblers of the UFL before landing at Denton.
The other 3-0 record we probably didn’t see coming belongs to Arlington Sam Houston.
The Texans — who might have the best old-school logo in the area — blasted Cleburne, 62-0, to improve to 3-0.
This week, they face the Arlington Colts.
Sam Houston was 1-9 last season and 2-8 in 2024. In 2023 and 2022, the Texans went a combined 0-20.
According to veteran journalist Ken Costlow, this is the Texans’ first 3-0 start since 1977.
The Texans haven’t had a .500 season or better since 2014, when they finished 6-5.
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Three weeks into the season, there are some surprising W-L records across Texas.
We mentioned two above. Here are a few others worth noting at this point:
Some of those records will obviously change once district play gets rolling.
But that’s what makes this time of year so much fun.
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Dallas Life Oak Cliff rolled to a 105-14 win over Bonham on Friday.
Yes.
105 points.
By quarter, the Lions scored 35, 29, 22 and 19.
And get this: In the first two games of the season, against Rains and Cedar Hill Trinity Leadership, Life Oak Cliff scored a combined 105 points.
Quarterback Camren Phillips was nearly unstoppable, completing 18-of-26 passes for 459 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Three different receivers topped 100 receiving yards, while six different players hauled in a touchdown pass.
That’s one way to put up a 100-spot.
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