UIL BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT NOTES

Golden anniversary: On Thursday, the UIL honored a pair of teams that once competed within the Prairie View Interscholastic League, recognizing the 50th anniversaries of their state championships.

Introduced by Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the University Interscholastic League, players from Beaumont Pollard were honored for winning the Class 4A championship with a 58-55 over Houston Kashmere. Also honored were players from the 1964 team from Fort Worth Kirkpatrick, which won the Class 3A championship, defeating Galena Park Fidelity Manor 65-61.

Point man: Mumford junior La Kendric Hyson led all scorers in his team’s 59-48 victory over Smyer, finishing with 25 points, but his offensive output wasn’t anything that recent state-tournament attendees hadn’t seen before.

Mumford’s state semifinal on Thursday was Hyson’s fifth game at the state tournament, and he has scored at least 19 points in each of those contests.

“I’m just trying to help my team get the victory,” he said.“I’m just being aggressive on the court and that’s pretty much it.”

Long-distance plan: In its 65-64 loss to Muenster in a Class A, Division I semifinal, Grapeland had 69 field-goal attempts, and more than half (35) were from behind the 3-point arc.

Grapeland senior Patrick Walker attempted 20 of those 3-pointers, and he accounted for all seven of his team’s makes. Walker finished with 37 points.

In the family: Houston Yates sophomore guard Jacob Young is the youngest son of former Phi Slama Jama standout Michael Young, who helped the high-flying Houston Cougars to back-toback NCAA title games in 1983-84.

On Thursday, Jacob Young, a 5-foot-10inch guard, scored 17 points while making 5 of 11 shots from 3-point range.

At courtside: A couple of questions with Dallas Madison junior guard Admon Gilder, who scored 29 points Thursday as the Trojans advanced to the Class 3A final: What’s your favorite memory of Austin? Winning the state championship last year was something I’ll never forget, and it made me hungry to come back here and try to repeat. I went 7 of 8 on 3’s in the semifinal game last year. I also was able to come to Austin on a recruiting trip and to watch a Longhorn game, and that was cool. What’s your favorite subject in school? Math. I like the process, and I’m good with numbers – and I like money.