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Deer fare well in Alvin
  
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By ROBERT AVERY
MANVEL – Gosh, these Deer Park Deer are a resilient bunch.
Everything seemed in place Tuesday afternoon for Deer Park to drop its Silver Division semifinal contest to Alief Taylor. Well, apparently almost everything.
There was Adrian Morales, Deer Park’s returning First Team All-District pick on the bench in street clothes and his left ankle wrapped in ice. And there was Alief Taylor coming back from an early 13-point deficit to own an eight-point lead in the third period.
In a lot of cases, teams at that point begin seeing the handwriting on the wall, but the Deer saw no handwriting, just an opportunity to take their game to the next level.
Deer Park, behind a season-high 31 points from Clint Ray and 19 from Tyler Aston, defeated Alief Taylor 77-73 at Manvel High School.
The victory propelled Deer Park to the Silver Division championship game where they played either Fort Bend Austin or Angleton in the title contest that was played late Tuesday night. Results were not available at press time.
“Everybody in the last two games of this tournament somebody has just stepped up,” Deer Park head coach Louie Means said. “I’m just proud of the way we’re playing as a team.”
With District 22-5A play starting next week, inquiring minds want to know the seriousness of Morales’ injury. It’s not believed to be that serious. The senior injured it against Clear Springs Monday night when he landed on a defender’s foot after taking a jump shot. He left the Manvel Gym Tuesday with the ice off his foot and walking only with a slight limp.
This has not been a good tournament for Morales’ ankles. On Saturday, Morales and referee Bob Ellis collided in the Sharpstown game, resulting in both taking a tumble to the floor. Ellis came up fine, but Morales took a seat on the bench with a slight injury to his right ankle and ice for that injury.
It appeared Deer Park was in need of Morales’ services and Taylor threatening to widen the gap on an already 48-40 predicament for the Deer. Instead, the Deer took charge, going on a 14-0 run in snaring a 52-48 advantage, an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.
Ray got the 14-0 ambush under way with a 3-point goal, before Aston followed suit. Chase Hallene, on a pass from Alirio Jimenez, then tied the game at 48-48. Two possessions later, Aston was finding the net for the team’s first lead of the second half. Ray and Aston then teamed up for another score, before the run came to an end with another Aston bucket.
During the 14-0 stampede, Deer Park’s rebounding under the defensive glass was superb, holding Taylor to one look. Not only was Ray doing on the offensive side of the floor, he was among the leaders under the defensive boards.
The only reason Taylor was able to stay near Deer Park’s shadow for most of the fourth period was because of some strong foul shooting in which the Lions went 10-of-11. But Deer Park compensated with more strong rebounding, this time under the offensive glass. A Natreon Moose putback and a Jimenez trey off of a Ray rebound gave the team a 63-57 lead.
Taylor wasn’t allowed to get any closer than five points from that point on as an 8-2 Deer surge got the lead all the way to 11 points at 74-63 with just over two minutes to play.
Deer Park opened the game with a 25-13 lead, but it was gone in a flash as Taylor’s Denzelle Stevenson got red-hot. He had 13 points at the half and he used most of that to help his teammates forge a 27-27 tie with 3:04 to play in the half. His last bucket gave Taylor a new-found lead of 36-30, but fortunately Deer Park took a little bit out of Taylor’s sails by scoring the final five points of the game, including a big putback by Ray.
Everything seemed in place Tuesday afternoon for Deer Park to drop its Silver Division semifinal contest to Alief Taylor. Well, apparently almost everything.
There was Adrian Morales, Deer Park’s returning First Team All-District pick on the bench in street clothes and his left ankle wrapped in ice. And there was Alief Taylor coming back from an early 13-point deficit to own an eight-point lead in the third period.
In a lot of cases, teams at that point begin seeing the handwriting on the wall, but the Deer saw no handwriting, just an opportunity to take their game to the next level.
Deer Park, behind a season-high 31 points from Clint Ray and 19 from Tyler Aston, defeated Alief Taylor 77-73 at Manvel High School.
The victory propelled Deer Park to the Silver Division championship game where they played either Fort Bend Austin or Angleton in the title contest that was played late Tuesday night. Results were not available at press time.
“Everybody in the last two games of this tournament somebody has just stepped up,” Deer Park head coach Louie Means said. “I’m just proud of the way we’re playing as a team.”
With District 22-5A play starting next week, inquiring minds want to know the seriousness of Morales’ injury. It’s not believed to be that serious. The senior injured it against Clear Springs Monday night when he landed on a defender’s foot after taking a jump shot. He left the Manvel Gym Tuesday with the ice off his foot and walking only with a slight limp.
This has not been a good tournament for Morales’ ankles. On Saturday, Morales and referee Bob Ellis collided in the Sharpstown game, resulting in both taking a tumble to the floor. Ellis came up fine, but Morales took a seat on the bench with a slight injury to his right ankle and ice for that injury.
It appeared Deer Park was in need of Morales’ services and Taylor threatening to widen the gap on an already 48-40 predicament for the Deer. Instead, the Deer took charge, going on a 14-0 run in snaring a 52-48 advantage, an advantage they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.
Ray got the 14-0 ambush under way with a 3-point goal, before Aston followed suit. Chase Hallene, on a pass from Alirio Jimenez, then tied the game at 48-48. Two possessions later, Aston was finding the net for the team’s first lead of the second half. Ray and Aston then teamed up for another score, before the run came to an end with another Aston bucket.
During the 14-0 stampede, Deer Park’s rebounding under the defensive glass was superb, holding Taylor to one look. Not only was Ray doing on the offensive side of the floor, he was among the leaders under the defensive boards.
The only reason Taylor was able to stay near Deer Park’s shadow for most of the fourth period was because of some strong foul shooting in which the Lions went 10-of-11. But Deer Park compensated with more strong rebounding, this time under the offensive glass. A Natreon Moose putback and a Jimenez trey off of a Ray rebound gave the team a 63-57 lead.
Taylor wasn’t allowed to get any closer than five points from that point on as an 8-2 Deer surge got the lead all the way to 11 points at 74-63 with just over two minutes to play.
Deer Park opened the game with a 25-13 lead, but it was gone in a flash as Taylor’s Denzelle Stevenson got red-hot. He had 13 points at the half and he used most of that to help his teammates forge a 27-27 tie with 3:04 to play in the half. His last bucket gave Taylor a new-found lead of 36-30, but fortunately Deer Park took a little bit out of Taylor’s sails by scoring the final five points of the game, including a big putback by Ray.
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