The Mexia News

Mexia's Trae Davis drives against Lorena's Tyler Underwood in the second half of their 79-68 upset of no. 7 Lorena to open district 19-3A action. Davis scored 10 points for Mexia in the win. (TJ Maxwell photo)
Runnin' Cats Light Up No. 7 Leopards
by TJ MAXWELL-Sports Editor
(Posted 1/26/2010 01:02 pm)

Tenacious Defense, Weathers’ 36 Points Leads Way LORENA - Sensational sophomore D.J. Weathers dropped 36 points - including eight three-pointers - to lead his Runnin’ Cat team to victory over the no. 7 Lorena Leopards on Friday night in Lorena. The no. 19 Mexia Blackcats relied heavily on pressure defense to all but shut down a potent Leopard offense. That defensive effort was backed up by a huge night from beyond the arc and at the free throw stripe for Mexia. The ‘Cats shot 21-28 (75%) from the stripe and over 60% from the three-point line. “That has been out M. O. this year....full court defense - either zone or man and we try to score off of that,” said Mexia head coach Walter Smith. “We’re not very big and usually the people we play have a lot more bigs than we do. We want to get up and down the floor and get some buckets in transition and we get that off our defense.” Weathers fired off three after three in the first quarter, connecting on all five. The distance from which each three was launched grew, as did his confidence. “D.J. came out on fire,” said Smith. “Lorena was doing really well at the beginning of the game hitting shots and D.J. was matching it and really kept us in there early until every body else got their groove going. D.J. was unreal tonight...that’s the D.J. we know.” “I told my dad I was going to be focused from now until we’re through with district,” said D.J. Weathers. “I came out and was putting up the shots and they were falling for me, so I just kept on shooting them. Free throws and everything were just falling.” Lorena traded blows with Mexia early, despite the hot shooting of Weathers. For every three-pointer hoisted by Weathers, Lorena answered with shots by Travis McAninch, Jake Dickson, Tyler Underwood and Nathan Palmer. The Leopards took the 15-14 lead with 2:32 left in the quarter on the layup of Dickson, but two more treys by Weathers and 1 of 2 free throws by Davonta Foreman gave Mexia the 21-19 lead after one. Despite losing team leader Travis McAninch to a knee injury. Lorena battled back in the second quarter to take the lead, 25-24, on nice move in the post by Palmer. Lorena increased their lead to five, 29-24, before Mexia went on a 9-0 run to regain the lead. A pair of layups by Leon Gray and Doug Gentry along with a three-pointer by D.J. Williams led the way. Lorena finished the half strong with a 5-0 run of their own to regain the lead, 36-33, heading into the locker room. A pair of buckets by Underwood along with a traditional three-point play by Dickson led the way. Three-pointers again sparked the Mexia offense to begin the second half. A feed from Trae Davis to Mister Carroll for the trey preceded another Weathers shot from beyond the arc. Lorena pushed their lead back to three, 44-41, behind shots by Hob Howell and Palmer only to be answered by another Weathers trey to knot the game at 44 all. Lorena would enjoy one more lead before the Runnin’ Cats took over. The layup by Dickson gave the Leopards the 46-44 lead with 2:56 left in the third. A floater by Weathers along with a trey by Jereal Proctor gave Mexia the lead for good with 1:19 left in the quarter. A three-pointer by Williams to end the third quarter sparked an 11-0 Mexia run that put Mexia in control to stay. Ahnre’ Gray added a layup and 3-4 free throws and Weathers drained his eighth three-pointer to put the ‘Cats out front 60-48. The Leopards cut the Mexia lead to eight, 66-58, on a layup by Underwood, but that was as close they would get. Mexia finished the game out by connecting on 11 of 14 free throws - including a perfect 10-10 by Davis and Weathers - to secure the 79-68 upset of the Leopards. Weathers had a huge part in claiming this very important district opening victory against one of the best teams in the state and he’s excited about that fact. “It feels great,” he said. “I think we should go up in the rankings now. Every body was saying we were going to lose this game and I was telling everybody that they couldn’t hang with us. I knew we were going to come out and win the game.” As the saying goes....’you can’t win them all if you don’t win the first one’. Mexia took a big step in that goal as they downed, arguably, their toughest 19-3A opponent. “We came on the road, for one, and got this one over with,” said an elated Smith. “We’ve got four on the road in the first round and we have to take care of them one at a time because every body is a good one.” Weathers added that he’s not backing down either, “I’m planning on going for 20 points every game or more...my confidence is way high.” Weathers had a game-high 36 points for Mexia with Trae Davis and Ahnre’ Gray following with 10 each. Also scoring for Mexia was D.J. Williams (8), Mister Carroll (3), Doug Gentry (3), Jereal Proctor (3), Trent Mack (2), Leon Gray (2), Jeff Proctor (1) and Davonta Foreman (1). ————- Ladycats fall to No. 13 Lady Leopards The young Ladycats again play tough against yet another ranked district opponent in no. 16 Lorena. A layup and a three-pointer by Brittany Bluitt gave Mexia a 6-5 lead. An Ariel Ballard layup gave Mexia back the lead, 9-8, but the Ladycats would lose the lead on 2 for 2 free throws by JoBeth Thompson and they never were able to take it back. After Lorena’s Aineta Dunn hit from three to make it 17-11, Mexia’s Brittnea’ Jones answered with a three at the buzzer for the 17-14 score. Brittnea’ Jones scored seven of Mexia’s 17 second-quarter points but Lorena’s Erin Sims out-dueled her to the tune of eight points in the frame - including her three-pointer that put the Lady Leopards up 27-17 with 5:58 left in the half - on their way to a 36-31 halftime lead. Lorena then extended their lead with a 15-11 third quarter - again led by Sims who scored six in the frame. A pair of Bluitt buckets led the Ladycats. Mexia then went cold in the final frame, only scoring six points. Erin Sims scored eight of Lorena’s 11 points in the quarter to propel the Lady Leopards to the 62-48 win. Leading all scorers was Sims with 25 for Lorena. Cassie Cubbison and Mika Mitchell followed with eight and six, respectively. Leading Mexia was Brittnea’ Jones with 12 followed by Brittany Bluitt with nine and the Ballard girls (Ariel and Taylor) with five each. Also scoring for Mexia was Amy Johnson (4), Earline Mims (2), Justice Williams (2), Ashley Johnson (2), Brechelle Beachum (2), Pale Henderson (2) and Asha Dansby (1). The Ladycats and Runnin’ Cats travel to Connally tonight. The Ladycat varsity is set to tip-off around 6:30 with the varsity Runnin’ Cats to follow

Mexia's Brittany Bluitt goes up for a layup in Mexia's 62-48 loss to the no. 13 Lorena Lady Leopards on Friday. (TJ Maxwell photo)

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