TWCA wins 5th state title; Covenant falls short
Time to hang another banner. The Woodlands Christian Academy collected its fifth state championship on Friday evening at West High School north of Waco, defeating Grace Prep of Arlington 79-76 in double overtime in the TAPPS Class 4A title game. Covenant Christian saw its season come to a close with a 62-41 loss to Lubbock All-Saints on Friday afternoon in the TAPPS Class 2A state championship game at West High School.
Time to hang another banner.
The Woodlands Christian Academy collected its fifth state championship on Friday evening at West High School north of Waco, defeating Grace Prep of Arlington 79-76 in double overtime in the TAPPS Class 4A title game.
The program also won championships in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012, but this is the first under thirdyear head coach Tanner Field.
According to Field, he and his staff have been preaching “defense, defense, defense” to their players all season. So it was fitting that the decisive play of the game came on that end of the court as Zack Golaszewski took a charge against 6-foot-5 shooting guard Jordan Phillips, who signed to play Division I basketball with Arkansas in November.
“We just had mental toughness,” Field said. “We coach our kids really, really hard, and they allow us to do it. They kind of took on our persona. Nobody got rattled, nobody started pointing fingers — we just played tough together.”
The Warriors — who finished their campaign with a 29-13 overall record — were determined to get back to the state final four this season after falling to Northland Christian in overtime in the semifinals last year.
Not only did TWCA accomplish that, but the Warriors took it a step further and found redemption against a Grace Prep team that defeated them by 22 points in tournament play back in December.
“We actually played Grace Prep in their tournament, and they handled us pretty good,” Field said of the 66-44 loss. “So I told the guys when we left there that I felt pretty strong that we were going to get another shot at them, but that shot would be in the state championship game.”
The Warriors had five players reach double digits on Friday night, including sophomore guard Bakari LaStrap, who had a team-high 20 points. Nash Golaszewski (16) Dawson Libonati (14), Zack Golaszewski (12), Zach Baker (10) and Emanuel Jones (7) rounded out the scoring.
Phillips finished the night with a game-high 33 points for Grace Prep, while teammate Brandon Lawrence added 18.
The Lions entered the weekend ranked No. 1 in the state by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches. The Warriors knew what kind of team they were going to be facing after beating Logos Prep of Sugar Land 79-64 in the semifinals at Waco University High School on Thursday.
With a packed gym on hand for the title game and a slew of TWCA faithful cheering them on, the Warriors once again reached the pinnacle.
“Over the last month, we’ve done a lot of work with these young men, just character-wise,” Field said. “We have just been asking them to put the Lord first in their lives and put each other above themselves. Our theme for the whole year was, ‘I am third.’ We preached God first, their teammates second, and always putting themselves last. I feel like them buying into that is really what got them over the hump.”
COVENANT FALLS IN FINALS
Covenant Christian saw its season come to a close with a 62-41 loss to Lubbock All-Saints on Friday afternoon in the TAPPS Class 2A state championship game at West High School.
The Cougars finished the year with a 25-8 overall record and reached the state tournament for the first time since 2002, the first season for the program under veteran coach Darwood Heldmann.
Covenant defeated district rival Huntsville Alpha Omega in the semifinals on Friday at Waco University High School.