Leps Win First Boys Hoops District Crown in 10 Years
For the first time since 2013, the La Grange boys basketball team won a district title.
The Leps clinched the crown with a 52-40 win at home over Smithville Tuesday in the regular season finale.
The night was especially meaningful for the team’s seven seniors (Jaxon Cooper, Eli Roberts, Clayton Knapik, Ty Trlicek, Jacob Chovanetz, Lamar Green and Jordan Bargas) who were playing in their final game at Leps gym - and their longtime head coach David Cooper, who is in his last year of coaching.
“This feels good,” said La Grange senior Jaxon Cooper, who scored a team-high 19 points. “I think my dad is really happy.”
“It’s really special,” David Cooper said. “Your goal at the beginning of the season is to be district champs, and I knew we had a shot this year.”
Bargas said, “It was a blessing to share the court with these guys ... This being our last game in this gym, it’s extremely emotional. After the game I went up and hugged my mom and cried.”
Tuesday’s victory celebration was years in the making for these seniors.
“We feel like we’ve been building towards this for years,” said senior Jacob Chovanetz. “We’ve been playing together since seventh grade. It’s such a full circle moment.”
This district title was anything but certain, however, three weeks ago after the Leps dropped their second district game.
Since then, La Grange has won five in a row.
“It’s a team sport and everybody does their part, but Nate (Scott) has emerged as a scorer,” David Cooper said of the junior, who scored 17 Tuesday. “That’s taken some pressure off Jaxon and some of the other guys. Everybody’s a little more relaxed. We have more weapons.”
But an even bigger challenge looms that anything the Leps faced in district.
La Grange begins the postseason next week against a to-be-determined Houston ISD team Monday at 6 p.m. at Katy’s Merrill Center. But any of the three potential opponents are really good.
“The key will be handling pressure,” David Cooper said. “Whoever we play is going to put full court pressure on us. They will make us handle the ball. If we can handle it, we’ll have a chance to win.”
The high school basketball careers of both Coopers, father and son, and the rest of the seniors will continue as long as the Leps keep winning.
2/13/23
La Grange boys 52, Smithville 40 La Grange 15 19 13 5 – 52 Smithville 9 11 8 12 – 40
La Grange scoring: Chovanetz 8, Roberts 6, Cooper 19, Scott 17, Nygren 2.
Smithville scoring: Garcia 9, Morny 11, Adams 15, Brown 5.
JV: La Grange 72, Smithville 18 Leading scorer: Knapik 17.
District 22-4A Boys Basketball Standings La Grange 10-2 Manor New Tech 9-3 Giddings 8-4 Taylor 8-4 Smithville 5-7 Austin Achieve 2-10 Caldwell 0-12