Panthers Reach Playoffs

With a playoff spot riding on the outcome of Tuesday’s regular season finale, the Quinlan Ford Panthers put it all together at the right time.

Actually, the Panthers’ 46-37 win over Lucas Lovejoy could be a capsule of how well the team played in the second half of the District 13-3A schedule.

"They really came on and did well. We went 4-1 in the last half of district, including wins over two teams who had beaten us the first meeting, Community and Lovejoy," Ford head coach David Fearing said.

Fearing’s crew will take on Van in the Class 3A bi-district round Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Mesquite Horn High School.

Robert Watson led Ford with 20 points in the win over Lovejoy with Michael Dooley chipping 16.

All said, the Panther team that took the floor Tuesday night bore no resemblance to the group that was manhandled by 20 points at Lovejoy on Jan. 30.

Ford (22-9, 6-4) led most of the contest. Both Watson and Dooley connected on momentum-turning 3-point shots in the fourth quarter after Lovejoy had grabbed the lead.

"Robert is a junior and basically a shooting guard, and he hit some real big ones for us last night," Fearing said.

"Michael has been our senior leader all year. His scoring average went down this year, strictly because of all the double-teams. But we had Michael, Brandon Pumphrey and a couple of others come through for us and Michael’s assists and rebounds went up," Fearing added.

He credited the players performing well defensively after making some adjustments on that end of the court.

"Lovejoy had beaten us bad over there. We did what we needed to do to hang in there this time," Fearing said.

Tuesday’s playoff game will mark the Panthers’ return to the postseason after missing out last year.

"We know (Van head coach Jerry) Cassell has been there a long time and we know they are going to be tough," Fearing said.