Here are a number of Dallas-area basketball storylines to follow this week:
Girls
The DeSoto girls basketball team will face its second straight nationally ranked opponent when it plays at No. 18 Duncanville at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The big question will be how DeSoto bounces back from its second loss of the season.
In a matchup of the top two teams in the nation, No. 1 Sidwell Friends from Washington D.C. rallied to beat No. 2 DeSoto 60-55 on Saturday in the championship game of ESPN’s Girls Basketball Invitational in Minnetonka, Minn. DeSoto led by 14 in the first half, still led by eight with just under seven minutes remaining and had a six-point lead with 2:14 left before Sidwell closed the game on an 11-0 run.
Both of DeSoto’s losses have been to Sidwell, with the other being 54-36 on Dec. 11. In this one, televised on ESPN+, DeSoto (22-2) committed 12 second-half turnovers and was plagued by foul trouble, with 6-4 LSU signee Sa’Myah Smith and 6-4 Texas signee Amina Muhammad fouling out in the second half and 6-5 Kentucky signee Tionna Herron picking up her fourth foul with six minutes left.
Still, there were plenty of positives for DeSoto. It held five-star UCLA signee Kiki Rice, the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruit, scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game before she finished with 14 points. Herron led DeSoto with 19 points — giving her 35 points in two games in the tournament — and SMU signee Jiya Perry scored 13 for DeSoto.
This will be the second matchup of the season between Duncanville and DeSoto, with DeSoto winning 60-56 on Dec. 21. There will be a lot on the line Tuesday, as DeSoto is 8-0 in District 11-6A and has Cedar Hill (8-1) and Duncanville (7-2) right behind.
Milestone win: Mansfield Timberview coach Kit Martin earned her 700th career win Friday as Timberview beat Burleson Centennial 56-30. There won’t be long to celebrate, though. Not with a matchup of two of the Dallas area’s top teams looming.
Timberview, ranked No. 12 in the state and No. 4 in the area in Class 5A, will host area No. 5-ranked Mansfield Legacy at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Timberview (18-8, 9-0) has a two-game lead over Legacy (18-11, 7-2) and could all but wrap up the District 8-5A title with a win, having already beaten Legacy 48-40 in their first district matchup.
Timberview will have to find a way to slow down Legacy star Savannah Catalon, who entered the week averaging 17.4 points.
Battle for first: First place in District 14-5A could be on the line Friday when Red Oak plays at Midlothian at 6:30 p.m. Entering this week, Red Oak (20-8, 8-0) has a one-game lead over Midlothian and won their first district meeting 49-32 on Jan. 4.
Before they get to that game, Red Oak will host Cleburne on Tuesday and Midlothian will play at Ennis.
North Texas signee Breanna Davis of Red Oak ranks second in the area in scoring (23.9 points per game), is sixth in assists (4.5 per game) and is tied for sixth in 3-pointers made (2.6 per game). She has scored more than 2,500 career points.
- Greg Riddle
Boys
Kimball set for nationally-ranked showdown: In the midst of district play, Kimball is headed to Florida.
Kimball (17-6), the second-ranked team in The Dallas Morning News area 5A rankings, will play Montverde Academy (Fla.) — ESPN’s No. 3 team in the country, and the reigning GEICO National Champion — at the powerhouses’s invitational tournament starting Thursday.
Montverde, which has produced NBA players Ben Simmons, DeAngelo Russell and RJ Barrett, has another loaded roster this season.
Kimball senior Arterio Morris, a five-star Texas signee, will go toe-to-toe with Montverde senior guard Dariq Whitehead, ESPN’s No. 4 overall recruit who’s signed to Duke. Montverde has four other top 25 recruits: five-star Texas signee Dillon Mitchell, five-star Florida signee Malik Reneau, four-star Indiana signee Jalen Hood-Schifino and four-star Kentucky signee Skyy Clark.
The game will be Kimball’s fourth against a nationally-ranked opponent this season.
“They are good,” Kimball coach Nick Smith said of Montverde. “Guess what? We aren’t scared. We’ll go down there and play them. Win or lose, we’re always getting experience, and then we come back to the district, and it helps.”
Hot shooting has Frisco Memorial streaking: Drew Steffe likes to shoot the ball. The good thing for Frisco Memorial is that he doesn’t miss much.
Steffe, a four-star recruit in the class of 2023, averaged 26 points for Frisco Memorial (22-3) in two wins last week, and went 14-for-20 (70%) on 3-point attempts. Memorial is fourth in The Dallas Morning News’ area 6A rankings.
Memorial is 11-0 in District 9-5A Div. II play and on a 15-game winning streak. It’ll play Frisco Wakeland and Frisco Centennial this week.
Garland, Ejiofor look to extend hot start: As far as head coach Randy Love knows, no Garland boy’s basketball team has ever gotten off to this good of a start.
Garland (15-1), The News’ 10th-ranked area team in 6A, can extend its historic stretch this week. It has just one game on the docket: Sachse (4-13) on Friday.
Four-star Kansas signee Zuby Ejiofor has done it all for Garland. The 6-8 senior leads the team in points per game (21), rebounds per game (12.5) and blocks per game (4.3), and has blocked four or more shots in six straight games. Classmate Aaron King is second in scoring at 7.8 points per game.
- Shawn McFarland
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