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Boys basketball: Jags win consolation title in The Colony
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
Following a five-day break for the holidays, Flower Mound's boys basketball team ramped back up its preparation for District 5-5A competition when they competed last Friday-Saturday at the Tommy Thomas Cougar Classic hosted by The Colony.
The Jaguars were a bit sluggish to start the tourney, falling in their opener against Newman Smith, 77-65, but rebounded to win three consecutive to claim the consolation title. Flower Mound picked up wins over Ranchview (65-58), Frisco (81-76 in overtime) and Tyler Lee (66-50) in the consolation finals.
"We got off to a real slow start against Smith," said Jason Fossett, Flower Mound head coach. "And I didn't think we played very well even though we got a win against Ranchview. But we played much better the second day."
"We were down, 10-0, before we even woke up," Fossett said. "We had to fight uphill the whole way and even cut it down to single digits in the fourth quarter. But we had to foul and Smith made their free throws and they did a good job of making shots the whole night."
Fossett added the Jaguars had trouble rebounding in the loss.
"[Newman Smith] was basically playing volleyball off the backboard a few times," he said.
Ryan Reibly led Flower Mound with 15 points, while Jacob Feickert and Justin Gammill scored 13 and 12, respectively.
Defensive intensity was lacking early against Ranchview as the Jaguars surrendered 15 points in the first quarter. However, Flower Mound scored 19 of their own and held the advantage in each of the first three quarters. Brandon Langley was the top scorer for the Jaguars with 17, while Gammill posted 15.
"We weren't very focused again, especially on defense," Fossett said. "But we did some other things and played well enough to win."
Against Frisco, Gammill- who paced the team with 22 points and 17 rebounds - converted a bank shot with 2.5 seconds remaining to force overtime.
"He can shoot the three but is big enough to bang inside, too," Fossett said. "He rebounds well and gets some put-backs that way and is just a tough guy to matchup against."
In overtime, the Jaguars gained the early lead and maintained the advantage thanks to clutch free throw shooting from Reibly. The guard scored 14 of his 17 points from the charity stripe, including 8-of-8 in overtime and two with 12 seconds remaining to put the contest out of reach.
"He's been huge at the free throw line for us so far this year," Fossett said. "Frisco is a good team and that was a good win for us. The effort was better even though the execution is not quite there yet. I think the kids knew it too and came out much more focused than on Friday."
Flower Mound jumped on Lee from the start in the consolation finals, claiming a 17-11 lead after one quarter before taking a 33-20 advantage to the break. The Jaguars blew the game open with a 21-13 run in the third quarter.
"Lee had been playing pretty well," Fossett said. "Defensively, we did a better job and we did a better job on the boards. We're really trying to stress giving up just one shot on the defensive end and we did a better job of that against Lee."
The Jaguars continued Friday with a non-district game at Allen.
Tuesday, Flower Mound travels to Plano West at 7:30 p.m. before opening district Friday at Hebron at the same time.
"It should be two good games on the road to get us ready for district," Fossett said. "And then we open district on the road against Hebron. It doesn't get any tougher than that."
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