Leps Glide Past Austin Achieve by 14
La Grange’s David Cooper has been coaching for decades, so encountering a situation he’s never seen before on the court is unusual.
But it happened Tuesday as Cooper’s La Grange boys basketball team beat visiting Austin Achieve 50-36.
Achieve didn’t attempt a single free-throw all game.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that,” Cooper said.
The lack of fouls (La Grange only went to the line nine times, but made seven) resulted in an ultra-quick game that lasted only a hour.
La Grange was called for five fouls in the game (but all in non-shooting situations, while Achieve was whistled for just six fouls).
The lack of fouls wasn’t the only unusual aspect of Tuesday’s game as Achieve’s James Rivera began the game on a mission to single-handedly pull off the upset. He scored Achieve’s first 16 points of the game all by himself and briefly had the Austin squad up 16-14 midway through the second quarter.
But eventually Rivera cooled off (thanks in part to some strong defensive work by Jordan Scott and Dana Baker, who were tasked with guarding him most of the night) and the depth of the Leps took over.
“He was a good shooter,” Baker said. “We just had to start chasing him.”
Rivera ended up scoring 22 of Achieve’s 36 points, while only two of his other teammates scored.
The Leps were much more balanced with Jaxon Cooper leading the way with 14 points, Caden Cooper adding 11 and six other La Grange players scoring.
Junior varsity call-up Nate Scott provided a spark for the Leps off the bench in the second quarter when the Leps took the lead for good. He was playing in just his second game of the season for the varsity.
“We’ve been watching him on JV and he can play and has good court awareness so he fits right in,” Cooper said.
Tuesday’s victory improves the Leps’ overall record to 12-6 and their district mark to 6-2.
La Grange has already clinched a playoff berth but face a tough final two games of the regular season as they go to district leading LBJ Friday and then host Giddings Friday Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the regular season finale.
“Feels good to be 6-2, hopefully we can keep it going,” Baker said.
“Us, Giddings and Smithville are all bunched together,” Cooper said. “Our playoff seeding will come down to that last game against Giddings,”
2/1/21
La Grange boys 50, Austin Achieve 36
Austin Achieve 11 7 13 5 – 36
La Grange 12 14 16 8 – 50
La Grange scoring: Jaxon Cooper 14, Caden Cooper 11, Jonathan Rogers 6, Ladarion McKenzie 6, Andrew Faske 4, Nate Scott 4, Dana Baker 3, Ty Trlicek 2.
Achieve scoring: James Rivera 22, Jaheim Billson 8, Anthony Rivera 6.
Record: La Grange is 12-6 overall and 6-2 in district.