PLAYOFF TIME! | Boys basketball playoffs begin this week; here’s where everyone is, and what’s happening (Tatum girls, too!)
Now, it’s the boys’ turn to open the postseason, and a handful of teams from the ETBlitz.com coverage area are in the mix.
Gilmer and Kilgore (both in Class 4A), Tatum, Troup, Arp and Sabine (all in 3A), and Overton (2A) will all begin the University Interscholastic League’s playoffs this week, all with hopes of reaching the promised land – in this case, that would be the UIL State Basketball Tournament, played March 6-8 at The Alamodome in San Antonio.
Already under way: the girls basketball playoffs, which began for last week, and are continuing for Tatum High School’s Lady Eagles in the regional semifinals this weekend (TATUM-PARADISE FRIDAY IN KAUFMAN | And Eagles open playoffs vs. Mineola on Tuesday). Tatum meets Paradise Friday night at Kaufman High School; click that link for more.
CLASS 4A
Kilgore: The UIL split the classifications into two, like football, with a bigger division and a smaller, based on enrollment.
Chapel Hill won District 16-4A, and Kilgore finished runner-up (the two teams did split the series, each winning at home). Pine Tree was third and Gilmer, fourth.
Coach Jeff Coleman and the Kilgore Bulldogs will be in the 4A-Division I playoffs, and so will Pine Tree. Chapel Hill and Gilmer, with a bit smaller enrollments, will both go 4A-Division II.
Kilgore (12-13 overall this season) will face Mabank on Tuesday at the University of Texas at Tyler’s Patriot Center, a 6:15 p.m. tip-off. Kilgore is the home team.
Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students, and Texas High School Coaches Association passes, TABA passes, Gold Cards and District 15 and 16-4A passes will all be accepted.
Currently, there’s no mention of the game on the UT-Tyler athletic site, or their ticket sales site. They will eventually get a link up on UT-Tyler’s athletic website, and when it’s posted there, it’ll be posted here on ETBlitz.com.
Mabank is 18-8 on the season, by the way, and has won five of its last six games – the Panthers did finish the season last Tuesday with a 69-62 win at home over Brownsboro. The last team to beat Mabank was Athens, back on Feb. 7 (56-49).
The Kilgore-Mabank winner moves on to round two, the area round, to meet either Paris (23-6) or Ford (13-17), who meet at Caddo Mills on Tuesday night.
Kilgore and Pine Tree could meet, if they both make the fourth round. The Bulldogs swept the Pirates this season in two very close games (42-41, 43-41).
Kilgore’s last game: a 39-34 win at home over Gilmer. The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven; the only loss was a 53-42 setback in a rematch with Chapel Hill in Tyler back on Feb. 7.
Gilmer: The Buckeyes’ bi-district, or first-round, opponent will be Canton (16-15), and they’ll meet the Eagles on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Floyd Wagstaff Gymnasium on the Tyler Junior College campus, always a popular destination this time of year for playoff games, and rightfully so, a great place for fans to watch a basketball game.
The Buckeyes started district play strong, with four straight wins, but a home loss to Chapel Hill (no shame there) was close, 68-66, and Gilmer wound up losing its regular season finale at Kilgore. Gilmer did play a warm-up game at Grace Community, losing that one 73-62.
The Gilmer-Canton winner will meet either Sunnyvale (17-10) or Pleasant Grove (14-12) in round two later next week.
Tickets for Gilmer vs. Canton are $5 for adults, $3 for students and can be purchased here: Apache Ticketing – Tyler Junior College.
CLASS 3A
Tatum: The Tatum High School Eagles begin the 3A-Division I playoffs on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Longview High School’s Lobo Coliseum against Mexia.
Tatum has been nothing but toxic for everyone the Eagles have played; coach Brett Carr’s team has won 12 straight, including running through the District 16-3A schedule without a single loss, and going through the entire 2024-25 home schedule without a defeat.
Mineola (9-16 overall) opens the playoffs in inauspicious fashion: with back-to-back losses to Edgewood (78-42, on Feb. 4) and to Malakoff (37-34).
The winner of Tatum-Mineola will advance to round two, and that’s huge: it’ll either be Liberty-Eylau (33-0) or Daingerfield (12-4) that they’ll face.
Tatum’s only losses the entire 2024-25 season: to Jefferson, 85-73 in double overtime, back on Dec. 10, and to Kountze, 69-68, on Dec. 27.
Again, no link so far available for Tatum-Mineola tickets at Lobo Coliseum. From previous experience for ETBlitz.com, Lobo Coliseum is a cashless facility. But as soon as we have a link, if available, it’ll be here. It’s likely tickets will be available to purchase in advance online.
Troup: The Tigers, runners-up to Tatum in 16-3A, will actually be the first of the ETBlitz.com-area boys playoff teams to hit the court this week, as they have a Monday night playoff game.
Troup will meet Grand Saline on Monday night at 7:30 at Brownsboro High School in the bi-district, or first, round of the 3A, Division II playoffs.
Coach Darin Harley’s Tigers went 23-7 in the regular season, winning seven of their last eight, losing only to Tatum (at Tatum). The Tigers finished with a 9-3 district record, and won their last two regular season games, escaping White Oak with a 50-49 win, then dealing Sabine a 63-40 loss to end the regular year.
Grand Saline went 17-9 overall, won the 15-3A title, and only lost once in its last dozen games, a 72-70 setback at Edgewood.
Arp: The Arp High School Tigers finished up 16-3A play as the third-place team, a 16-8 overall record and 7-5 in the district.
Arp will make a trip west to Lindale on Tuesday night to face Edgewood in the first round of the 3A-Division II playoffs, and the Tigers will be visitors.
Tickets for the game are $6 for adults and $4 for students, and are online-only. Here’s that link: https://www.lindaleathletics.org/HTtickets. District, THSCA, TABC and senior passes will all be accepted.
For anyone who can’t make it but would love to listen, hear the game on KMOO 99.9-FM, or hear the streaming broadcast here: https://www.kmoo.com/.
The Tigers, coached by Brian Malone, are back in the playoffs again this year, for a second straight year, and for the eighth time in the last 10 years. They have plenty of experience: six Arp players are in their third year on varsity.
Arp lost its regular season finale, but by just three, at West Rusk last week (60-57), and lost a playoff warm-up game to Overton (50-43).
Edgewood is 13-5 and on a six-game winning streak.
Sabine: Coach Ian Story and the Cardinals had to play their way into the Class 3A, Division I playoffs after winding up tied with West Rusk at the end of the regular season.
The Cardinals outlasted West Rusk, 68-59, in a tiebreaker, a third game between the teams, to see who would take that fourth playoff spot in 16-3A.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Hudson McNatt led Sabine with 31 points. Teammate Dalton Taylor had 14 for the Cardinals.
Now, Sabine (12-20 overall) heads into the postseason Tuesday night. They’ll face Malakoff at 6 p.m. at Brownsboro, a 6 p.m. start.
It’ll be the first playoff game for Story as head coach, but not his first playoff game at Sabine. Story is in his first season as the Cardinals’ head coach; he took over for coach Colby Carr. Story was Carr’s assistant prior to taking over the reins as head coach this year.
Malakoff lost its last game of the regular season last week, a 69-58 loss to Grand Saline.
McNatt, a multi-time Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week, has just been ridiculous, particularly the last five games, averaging 30.4 points over that span and not scoring less than 24 points in any of those games.
CLASS 2A
Overton: The Overton Mustangs, who have had great success across the board in athletics the last two school years, will try to keep that going on Tuesday night, as they head into the Class 2A playoffs as the District 22 champions.
They’ll go to Winona High School Tuesday for a first round, or bi-district round, game against Union Grove, a 6:30 p.m. tip-off.
As with most of the other games, passes are accepted. Tickets for adults are $5 each and student tickets are $3 each. Overton is the home team.
The winner of Overton-Union Grove advances to the area round to meet either Shelbyville (25-3) or Beckville (16-10) – those two teams are playing Tuesday night at 6 p.m. in Center.
Overton has won eight straight games, and hasn’t lost since Jan. 14. The Mustangs were the ones that ended Douglass’s 45-game district win streak, having lost to Douglass in the first meeting between the teams this year, and then beat Douglass in the rematch on Feb. 4, in Overton.
Union Grove is 20-13 on the season, and has won five straight games. These two teams have played this year: Overton beat Union Grove, 50-38, an Overton home game on Dec. 27.
