12 in a Row for the Leps

It’s now a dozen wins in a row for the surging La Grange boys basketball team.

The Leps welcomed Taylor to La Grange Tuesday by bashing the Ducks 64-46. In the process the Leps strengthened their hold on first place in the district and improved their record to 21-8 overall and 7-0 in 22-4A play.

“We’ve just been putting in that work every day,” said La Grange senior Nate Scott of how the Leps have built this 12-game win streak. “We’ve had really good coaching and a good game plan.”

Scott led the way for the Leps with 36 points Tuesday.

Oliver Gunn added nine and Cordale Knapik scored eight.

The Leps have not lost since Dec. 9 – six weeks of victories.

“Coming out of that Navasota tournament we had gone 0-4 and dropped our record to 9-8, and that really motivated us,” said Gunn. “We’ve got good coaching and a lot of talent on this team.”

Most of the attention for Taylor is usually on senior Treos Richardson – and justifiably so, he’s 6-foot-7 and has scored more than 1,000 points in his high school career.

But La Grange head coach Trent Collier had a different focus for his team’s defense – athletic guard T.J. Whybrew.

“Richardson is a really good player, but No. 4 (Whybrew) is their X factor,” Collier said. “When he has a good game, they are dangerous, so we really focused on not letting him catch the ball, not letting him have any good looks, keeping him frustrated. With him not creating for Treos, it impacted him too.”

La Grange jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.

Richardson scored 14 to lead the Ducks, but Whybrew (who is averaging more than 10 points a game) didn’t score at all.

The Leps led 38-13 at the half, and despite a Taylor surge in the third quarter, the Leps felt in control the entire game.

Now the La Grange boys can turn their attention to Caldwell, their opponent on the road Friday at 7:30 p.m.. The Hornets are lurking in second place, and the first time these teams played, La Grange needed a pair of last second free throws by Reece Nygren to escape with a 52-51 win.

“Winning 12 in a row feels pretty good, but I’m worried about going 1-0 Friday night,” Collier said. “We have the edge in the standings, but I’d like to go there and take care of business, Caldwell’s a really good basketball team. They sense they have a shot at a district championship, too. Hopefully we can bring some of our crowd and negate some of that home court advantage.”

“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Gunn said.

Jan. 23 La Grange boys 64, Taylor 46 Taylor 8 5 21 12 – 46

La Grange 16 22 13 13 – 64 La Grange scoring: Clayton Cooper 3, Conner Brooks 2, Cordale Knapik 8, Thai Scott 4, Nate Scott 36, Oliver Gunn 9.

JV: La Grange 61, Taylor 33 Leading scorer: Kleiber 22

Freshmen: La Grange 55, Taylor 11 Leading scorer: Supak 24

District 22-4A Boys Hoops

La Grange 7-0 Caldwell 5-1 Taylor 4-3 Manor NT 3-3 Giddings 2-4 Austin Ach. 1-5 Smithville 0-6