Photo by Victor Tapia
Farmer J’Tyus Clark scored a combined three
points in a pair of District 13-3A contests last
week.

Final postseason spot was there for the taking

By David Jenkins
Staff Writer

The Farmers moved one step closer to a spot in the Class 3A Region II playoffs last week.

The week started Feb. 9 with a 45-35  home win over  Princeton. That was followed three days later by a second district loss to Lovejoy, this time by the margin of 56-29.

A victory  over Emory Rains in the Feb. 16 district finale would have given Farmersville the final postseason slot. Results were unavailable at press time.

The Farmers are sitting in third place with a record of 4-5. Holding down the two spots are 13-3A champion Lovejoy and Quinlan Ford. 

“They (Emory Rains) are a much better team than their record indicates,” head coach Tyron Lee said.  “They beat (57-51) us the first time through in district. They have some good basketball players, and they are very well coached. We will definitely have to bring our best effort to win at their place.”

The last time the Farmers made the playoffs was in 2002-’03 season, which came in Class 3A. 

During that run they made it to the bi-district round. 

Their longest playoff run came in the 1999-’00 and 2000-’01 seasons in Class 2A, where they advanced to the Region II semifinals. Both trips ended with loses to Peaster.

This time around they will face the No. 2 team from 14-3A, which consists of Canton, Eustace, Kemp, Mineola, Van and Wills Point.

Leading the way against Princeton was Jeremy Callaway, who poured in a game-high 19 points.

Also helping out were Michael Thompson (10), Payton (eight), Austin Brooks (five), Tyler Ravsten (two) and J’Tyus Clark (one).

“It was a tale of two halves for us.  We did not play well defensively in the first half, and Princeton capitalized on some good looks at the basket,” Lee said.  “In the third quarter, we gave up one point. That helped us finish off the game strong. We were able to succeed based on good team defense in the second half, as a result of great individual efforts from Tyler Ravsten, Austin Brooks, Payton Adams, Logan Edge and Colton Monk.”

Unfortunately, three days later they ran into Lovejoy.

“That game was a bit of a disappointment for us,” Lee said. “We were not in school (Friday) and due to the weather were only able to get in one of our three scheduled games.  Friday was our parent’s night, and it was much less attended than it would have been on a regular Friday night.  Lovejoy is a very good basketball team. Their team defense hurt us, and we weren’t able to score more than nine points in any quarter.”

Subvarsity report
The junior varsity (58-53) and freshmen (45-41) picked up home wins over Princeton.

Each was slated to take on Lovejoy last Friday, but both games were cancelled.

Both teams wrapped up the district season Feb. 16 at Emory Rains. Results were unavailable at press time.