La Grange Basketball Season Ends With Playoff Loss to Houston Yates

La Grange’s reward for putting together a great regular season and winning the first district boys basketball title in a decade?

A matchup against Texas High School basketball royalty in the first round of the playoffs.

The Leps faced Houston Yates (which has won nine state basketball titles) Monday in Katy and La Grange lost 78-62.

Yates may have only been the fourth place finisher out of the brutally tough District 21-4A, but they certainly still look like a team that can make a lot of noise in the playoffs.

“We had never seen a team like that before,” said La Grange senior Jaxon Cooper, who led the Leps in scoring with 26 points. “You can’t simulate the way they get up and down the court in practice.”

La Grange head coach David Cooper said. “As we were preparing, I was wondering if we were going to be able to get into our man offense and we never did. We scored enough points to normally win but not against those guys. It was relentless pressure. They just kick you out of what you normally do.”

And Yates wasted no time doing so against the Leps Monday.

Before one minute had gone by in the game Yates led 8-0 and their suffocating fullcourt press had caused three La Grange turnovers.

Eventually Yates stretched that lead to 13-0 before La Grange finally settled down.

And then the Leps started thriving.

Led by the one-two scoring combo of senior Jaxon Cooper (who had 26 points) and junior Nate Scott (who had 21 points) La Grange started climbing back into the game, cutting the Yates lead to just five at halftime.

“They showed some resiliency and courage and guts to weather the storm and get back into it,” David Cooper said. “I was really proud of that.”

A Jaxon Cooper lay-up to start the second half trimmed the Yates lead to 37-34.

But Yates roared back, partially fueled by a Scott ankle injury that hobbled him in the second half.

The Leps (19-10) were still within single digits early in the fourth quarter but Yates (16-7) really heated up from threepoint range to keep La Grange at arm’s length.

Monday’s loss ends the coaching career of David Cooper, a La Grange grad himself, who was a longtime teacher and coach at Giddings and La Grange.

He shared an emotional hug with his youngest son Jaxon after he came off the court for the last time.

“It’s sad now, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it these last two or three weeks and I’m ready, it feels right,” he said. “I’ll be sad here for about 1015 minutes but then I’ll realize this is what I want to do and is the best thing for me and my family. I’ll go to track and coach some high jump, and I’ll continue teaching for a couple of years and then find something else to do.”

The Leps boys basketball team will look dramatically different next season as seven La Grange seniors, including three starters, played in their final game Monday.

“We’ve got a lot of seniors on this team. We’re going to miss them,’ Scott said. “We finished the season better than we started.”

“We can’t hang our heads,” Jaxon Cooper said. “We had a great season.”

2/20/23

Houston Yates 78, La Grange 62 Yates 28 9 20 21 – 78 La Grange 17 15 14 16 – 62 La Grange scoring: Chovanetz 2, Williams 2, Roberts 2, Knapik 1, Trlicek 2, Cooper 26, Scott 21, Nygren 6