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‘Texas basketball is different’: Duncanville beats top-ranked Sierra Canyon at Thanksgiving Hoopfest

Ron Holland, Davion Sykes and Aric Demings each score 16 points in an 80-73 win over the No. 1 team in MaxPreps’ national rankings

FORT WORTH — Of all the ongoing, endless and sometimes fruitless debates that exist in sports, one has risen at the preps level.

Which state can lay its claim to having the nation’s best high school basketball?

California and Maryland will argue in their respective favor. New York, Illinois, Georgia and Washington, too. Each state has a lineage of great players, great teams and year-in-year out nationally-ranked programs.

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Texas, too, would like to throw its hat into the ring.

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It started Saturday afternoon at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, where Richardson beat Compass Prep (Ariz.), the top-ranked prep school nationally per MaxPreps, and the top overall high school team in the country per ESPN, at the Thanksgiving Hoopfest.

It ended that night, in that same arena, with Davion Sykes dangling from a rim, fresh off of an exclamation point of a dunk that capped a 80-73 win for Duncanville over Sierra Canyon (Calif.), the No. 1 team in MaxPreps’ national high school rankings, and the fifth-ranked team in ESPN’s overall rankings.

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The win over Sierra Canyon (4-1), which did play without Amari Bailey, a five-star senior out with an injury, is big for Duncanville (6-0). Five-star junior Ron Holland would argue that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, too.

“This says a lot about the state, honestly,” Holland said. Duncanville beat nationally-ranked Corona Centennial (Calif.) on Friday night, and Wheeler (Ga.) on Wednesday. “In the basketball world right now, there’s a whole argument going on about who is the best state in basketball. I feel like Texas is doing a lot of good things right now.”

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Sierra Canyon, which trailed by 11 points after the first quarter, 13 points at halftime and 15 through three, increased its defensive pressure in the fourth and cut Duncanville’s lead to as few as three points, 74-71, with 37 seconds left in the game. Holland (16 points, nine rebounds) was fouled, converted both free throws and extended Duncanville’s lead to 76-71. Ramel Lloyd then sank a layup to bring Sierra Canyon within three points, again.

Duncanville junior Ron Holland Jr. scored 16 points and had nine rebounds in a 80-73 win...
Duncanville junior Ron Holland Jr. scored 16 points and had nine rebounds in a 80-73 win over Sierra Canyon at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Saturday night.(Shawn McFarland / Shawn McFarland/The Dallas Morning News)

Duncanville senior C.J. Ford was fouled and hit both at the line, and extended Duncanville’s lead to 78-73. That’s when, on Sierra Canyon’s ensuing possession, Duncanville senior Anthony Black stole the ball and lobbed it down the court to Sykes, whose dunk with just over two seconds left sent the home crowd into a frenzy.

Sykes, a senior committed to Texas State, was sidelined with an injury when Sierra Canyon beat Duncanville 66-63 at the Thanksgiving Hoopfest in 2019. He scored 16 points in Saturday’s win on 7-for-10 shooting.

“It’s a great environment to be in, it’s a great stage to be in,” Sykes said. “Wanting to be in a big stage, it was real big for me.”

Junior Aric Demings scored 16 points for Duncanville. Black, a five-star recruit, had 11 points and four steals. Ford had 12 points.

Sierra Canyon junior Bronny James, the son of LeBron James and the only non-Duncanville player to draw cheers against the hometown team, scored eight points, pulled down six rebounds and dished three assists. Kijani Wright, a four-star senior committed to USC, led the California powerhouse with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

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Duncanville, ranked fifth nationally by MaxPreps and 15th by ESPN, is hunting for its third-straight 6A state championship. An experience like Saturday’s game, Holland said, is ideal preparation.

“This game resembles the state [championship],” Holland said. “Down there in San Antonio, [it’s a] big arena, the air is thin in there. Whole lot of people in there, whole lot of noise going on. We’ve just got to lock in.”

And in terms of Duncanville’s — and Texas’ — standing in the national view? There’s no way to quite judge that, no trophy handed out for that at the conclusion of the season. That debate, certainly, has no end.

Unless, of course, you ask those from Texas.

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“Texas basketball is different,” Sykes said. “Texas basketball, Texas football. That’s it. You don’t want to see anything else, everything is in Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas.”

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