[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\nCARROLLTON \u2014 With just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter, the large contingent of Plano East fans at Creekview High School went full throat, serenading the Panthers with chants of \u201cD-up\u201d \u2014 encouraging the squad to continue getting defensive stops and try to reduce what had been a 13-point deficit to five.<\/p>\n
Playing five seniors, Plano East got a big defensive play from one of its 12th-graders, Keagan Ho, just seconds earlier. Ho recorded a steal near the scorer\u2019s table, banked in a basket and converted the ensuing free throw after being fouled to complete a three-point play.<\/p>\n
The Panthers then had a chance to make it a one-possession game after senior Moustafa Abualneel grabbed a defensive rebound on Coppell\u2019s ensuing possession. Plano East put up a shot near the baseline but could not get it to fall.<\/p>\n
For as hard as Plano East worked to chip away at Coppell\u2019s lead, the Cowboys\u2019 defense did not allow the Panthers to gain additional momentum. Coppell on a 17-9 run over the final five minutes, including an 11-of-13 performance at the free-throw line, sending the Panthers to a season-ending 69-56 loss in a Class 6A Division I bi-district playoff game Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that we\u2019ve struggled with all year is on the offensive side,\u201d head coach Matt Wester said. \u201cOnce you are forced to play catch-up, it\u2019s hard for a team that doesn\u2019t score a lot to catch up. We can catch up to teams, but we need time to chip away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abualneel led Plano East with 12 points, followed by Alex Brewington with 11 and Ho with nine.<\/p>\n
Plano East struggled to keep up with the Cowboys\u2019 fast pace.<\/p>\n
Coppell shot 14-of-18 from the field in the first half with five 3-pointers and repeatedly scored at the rim, including a lob to senior Sibu Socks in the first quarter. Plano East also struggled to defend Coppell senior guard Isaiah Fleming, who had 13 points in the first two quarters, helping the Cowboys build a 39-30 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey push their pace a lot on offense with their transition,\u201d Wester said. \u201cThey\u2019re probably the best that we have seen this year. Only really good teams can go 14-of-18 in the first half. That\u2019s really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
To read the full story, stay informed and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to the\u00a0Murphy Monitor.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano East senior point guard Jayden Parker attempts to dribble the ball around a Coppell defender Monday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-178215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}