H.S. Playoff Basketball: Central vs. Lamar

I'm a little behind on the most recent blogs. I should have been posting as soon as I shot these assignments, but we have been super busy around the office with all of the rodeo and stock show assignments plus the playoff basketball games. We have a tone of local and area teams still in the hunt for a chance to play in the state championship and some of them have a real chance. It seems like this year we have more teams still in the post season than usual. One such team was our very own Central Bobcats. This team has struggled over the last few years. Just two years ago the Bobcats finished the season with a 6-24 record, enough to finish last in district. But today, they are the No. 23-ranked team in the state and they look good. Right from the beginning of the game (central was playing Arlington Lamar) it looked like it was going to be one of those back-and-forth contests with neither team taking a commanding lead. Central would score two points, Lamar would score three, then vice versa. Lamar eventually held a seven point lead (14-21) at the end of the first quarter, but the rest of the game belonged to Central. The Bobcats headed into the locker room at the half leading 43-33. When the second half started Central never looked back, leading by as much as 26 points before finishing the game with a 85-65 win to move on to the area round of the playoffs.
There was only one dark cloud hanging over the Bobcats' celebration that night and that was the loss of starting guard Hunter Kinyon, who dislocated his left elbow falling hard to the floor after being fouled on a layup. After he got up off the floor it was obvious that something was wrong. And when everyone saw that his elbow was out of whack, you could hear muffled gagging echo off the walls of the silent gym. I felt terrible for the kid, not just because of the pain he was currently going through, but because of what he had to suffer through to get to this season. Kinyon was on that team that went 6-24 and finished dead last in the district and he missed almost all of last season with a torn meniscus. Now, he is a member of the No. 23-ranked team in the state and separates his elbow in the first playoff game? That's just bad luck, plain and simple. He had to have surgery on his elbow yesterday.
But, the Bobcats are going to have to overcome adversity because tonight they face Lubbock Coronado in the area-round game held in Big Spring. From what I understand, Coronado matches up well with Central, but they have a lot more height. This should be a pretty good contest.