SAN ANGELO, TX — The Frenship Tigers are pursuing their fifth straight district title, but they always seem to get a battle from the Central Bobcats.
With a raucous home crowd behind them, the Bobcats made a late comeback charge Friday but came up just short in a 69-63 loss.
Central trailed by 15 points entering the fourth quarter before storming back to get as close as 66-63 on TK Taylor’s putback with just under a minute to play.
“We’re a hard-fighting team with some competitors,” Central head coach Arsenio Geter said. “We didn’t shoot very well at all, and that’s not our M.O. We’re usually pretty good shooters. If a couple things go differently, we’re on top.
“When we started shooting better, we were able to claw back, but kudos to Frenship. They’re well-coached and they have great players on that team that are hard to stop. When you put all that together with us not having our best shooting night, it’s hard to be successful.”
Central also lost by six points on the road to Frenship earlier this season.
Frenship’s Patton Pinkins, a 6-foot-5 Ole Miss signee who poured in 38 points, helped ice Friday's game with a pair of free throws in the final minute.
Pinkins scored 17 points in the third quarter to help Frenship stretch a 35-27 halftime lead into a 54-39 advantage heading into the final quarter.
“I call him the most efficient player in America,” Frenship head coach Paul Page said of Pinkins. “He didn’t take a lot of shots, but when he does you expect it to go in. He just kind of took over the game tonight, and that’s just the type of player he is. He’s not a volume guy, but he’s just so efficient, and I think you saw that tonight.
“He’s special and we’re just glad to be a part of his journey.”
Chase Campbell added 15 points for the Tigers.
Central was led by Christian English, who had 21 points, followed by Taylor with 18 and Ean McNeill with 15.
McNeill hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Bobcats within 64-60 with 2:25 remaining.
English had a 3-point try that rolled around the rim and hit the backboard before missing that would have made it a three-point game with 1:40 to play.
Central simply dug too deep of a hole early. After taking a 22-20 lead on Taylor's steal and breakaway dunk, the Bobcats were outscored 15-5 the remainder of the first half.
They still trailed by as much as 11 midway through the fourth quarter before the late comeback attempt.
Geter said there was no doubt that Frenship's size created a mismatch for Central.
"That's usually every game for us. We're usually not the biggest team, but we have the biggest heart, and I love that about this team. I'll go to battle with that any day," Geter said.
Page said he was proud of his team for handling a difficult road atmosphere to hang on for the win.
"We talked about that. We knew coming in it was going to be that type of atmosphere. It's obviously a circle-on-the-schedule game when Frenship comes to town, so we knew we'd get their best," Page said.
Frenship (22-7 overall, 7-0 in District 2-6A) will play again Tuesday at home against Midland Legacy. The Tigers still have second-place Odessa Permian looming in the regular-season finale at home.
"We've won district four years in a row, and our guys have a goal to go get that fifth one," Page said. "I
Won dist 4 years in arow, guys have goal go get 5th one, which huge, 7-0 now, with three to play, so huge for us get this one on the road tonight, get ready remainien 3 and try to lcose that out
Central (23-8, 4-3) will host second-place Odessa Permian on Tuesday.
They’re district championship winning team, four in a row, honestly record doens’t show what been doing, didn’t have whale team first 10 games, easily be 30-whatever team ranked in top 10 in the state, easily, and so gonna hold our head up high, understand we’re right up there with everybody else, diff shooting night, diff result, move on next one, permian at home, love to go take care of that one
This story will be updated.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: