ARLINGTON — North Crowley began what it hopes is a state championship run with a 68-50 win over Hurst L.D. Bell on Monday night in the bi-district round of the 6A Division I Region I playoffs.
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L.D. Bell made the state’s No. 2 team work for that victory at Arlington Martin, tying North Crowley to end the first quarter and trailing by just five points at the half.
It took a 24-point fourth quarter from North Crowley to hold off L.D. Bell. Star junior guard Isaak Hayes scored nine of them in that span. He finished with a team-high 21 points on Monday, while seniors Trey Hall and Bennjamin Jones added 19 and 14, respectively.
North Crowley (30–3) increased its win streak to 13 and will play the winner of Tuesday’s El Paso Eastlake-Midland Legacy game. The program went 12-0 in District 3-6A and is a top contender for the 6A Division I crown, but it should face more challenges along the way.
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The Region I bracket includes heavyweights such as state-ranked Mansfield Lake Ridge and state-ranked Allen, which eliminated North Crowley in the regional semifinals in 2025 and is still alive in the 2026 playoffs.
North Crowley swept Lake Ridge, set to face Northwest Eaton in the first round on Tuesday, in district play this season and averaged 90.2 points over all of its 12 district games. The program also boasts wins over several teams that were state-ranked during the season, with No. 3 Little Elm being among them.
A perennial contender for decades, North Crowley won a 5A state title in 2008. But the program hasn’t won a state championship since. This year could be different.
– Myah Taylor
Coppell 69, Plano East 56: CARROLLTON — Coppell wanted to play fast and Plano East saw why.
Head coach Ryan Murphy believed that a high-scoring game would favor his Coppell team, which was playing its first playoff game in four years, and Monday night’s 69-56 win in the bi-district round was proof he was right.
“We knew that a game in the 40s was going to benefit (Plano East), and if it was a first-team-to-60, then it would benefit us,” Murphy said.
Led by junior Isaiah Fleming, Coppell connected on five 3-pointers in the first half, eventually taking a 39-30 lead over Plano East into the half. A lob to Sibu Socks in the second period had the Coppell side of Creekview High School Gymnasium rocking and Coppell never trailed afterward. Fleming finished the game with 21 points, 16 coming in the first half.
“We’d like to get some more stops in that sequence and all that,” Murphy said about his team’s first half. “But the guys came out hot, locked in. Overall, it was a good start offensively, but we definitely had to tighten some things up defensively.”
That defensive edge came right when they needed it, late in the game, when Coppell switched to a zone to counter Plano East’s final comeback attempt in the fourth period.
Plano East closed the lead to five at one point after a quick barrage of 3-pointers from Keagan Ho and Alijah Plummer before Coppell’s zone caused their offense to stall for long sequences. During one stretch, East only got two shots off over a two to three-minute span in the final period, constantly swinging the ball around the perimeter looking for an open look with the clock draining.
“If we went zone, we thought we could slow them down and break their rhythm a little bit, but we’d also be in position to box out,” Murphy said. “Early (Coppell) kind of got a couple 3-pointers on us, but we kind of extended the zone a little bit to take away the perimeter.”
Coppell senior Colin Griffith squashed the comeback attempt when he was fouled on a 3-pointer with under two minutes to play, all but officially ending Plano East’s season in the bi-district round for the second consecutive season. Griffith drained two of the three, and Coppell allowed just one more basket defensively the rest of the game.
“I felt like we were gassing out a little bit and they (Plano East) were getting some really good looks,” Murphy said. “We were getting put in scrambles, and those scrambles prevented us from being in position to box out and rebound, so they were really hurting with that.”
Griffith ended the game with 20 points, including two 3-pointers in the opening period. Senior Moustafa Abualneel led Plano East with 12 points.
The win is Coppell’s first playoff win since 2021 and first under Murphy as head coach.
Frisco Panther Creek 119, Hampton Prep 18: It was a high-scoring affair for Panther Creek in the bi-district round of the 4A Division II Region II playoffs.
Kedreon Cole and Rodney Wagner, one of the state’s leading scorers, combined for 67 points. Cole led with 34 points, while Wagner added 33. Panther Creek did not allow double digit-scoring in any of the four quarters.
The program, ranked 23rd in the state among Class 4A teams, will play the winner of the Carter-Godley game in the area round.
Allen 61, Denton Braswell 51: The District 6-6A champion and the state’s 24th-ranked 6A team will move on to the area round for another year.
Allen, a 6A Division I state semifinalist in 2025, won its fourth straight game with a win over Braswell in the bi-district round of the 6A Division I Region I playoffs.
Next up for Allen is a meeting with the winner of the South Grand Prairie-Richardson game set for Tuesday.
South Oak Cliff 73, Woodrow Wilson 69: This Dallas ISD clash came down to the end.
South Oak Cliff’s Jonathan Bradley scored a game-high 36 points in the win. SOC will play the winner of the Ennis-Waco University game in the area round of the 5A Division II Region II playoffs.
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