Cooper Jones led Paradise in scoring with 15 points Friday in the Panthers’ area win against Chisum, 40-24. BRENDAN MARCHAND | WCMESSENGER
The Paradise Panthers constructed one of their best defensive showings of the season Friday and turned the lock-down performance against Chisum into an area championship, 40-24.
Paradise (33-2) held Chisum to 9 points in the first half, and after weathering a rare offensive surge by the Mustangs in the third quarter, closed out the contest by allowing just 3 points in the final period.
“As good as the offense was early on, my goodness, it was about our defense tonight,” Paradise coach Bo Rickner said. “We’ve had some great defensive games, but this is up there with some of the best ones.”
The Panthers jumped out to a 17-5 lead to open the contest and did a bulk of their damage from deep.
Junior Cooper Jones made three 3-pointers to lead the first quarter scoring with 9 points. Will McGregor landed a shot from deep on his way to 5 points in the first.
“It was all about ball movement — sharing the ball and moving well without it to find the open spots. [Chisum] was long and ran kind of a switching man, so we had to create some false movement to create looks,” Rickner said. “Credit to Cooper and Will for knocking down some big shots early on for us.”
McGregor buried another three in the second quarter, while Jones, Cash Gibson, Bryce Chipman and Max Jordan all had a field goal each.
Chisum was held to just 4 points in the second frame and trailed Paradise 28-9 at halftime.
“We played through each other, and I think it’s just all the hours in the gym that were showing. We’ve got a team chemistry that you can’t teach or coach,” Jones said. “Honestly, we were just having fun. The shots were falling and it felt good.”
Chisum didn’t let Paradise stay comfortable for long. The Mustangs charged ahead for a 12-2 run in the third quarter.
After being up by almost 20 just several minutes earlier, Paradise only led 30-21 with two minutes to go in the third quarter.
“We preach that the beginning of the third quarter is a really big deal, and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that,” Rickner said. “We got a little relaxed and the offense became stagnant, and [Chisum] fully took advantage it.”
Right when the game looked in control by Chisum, the Mustangs’ life was sucked away. Jabray Walker was assessed with a technical, and Paradise used the momentum shift in its favor.
The Panthers closed out the third quarter with a 5-0 run to reclaim a comfortable 35-21 lead.
Jones hit a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter and Jordan added a layup in transition to grow the Paradise lead to 19, allowing the Panthers to control the basketball and burn the clock off the rest of the game.
Jones led the Panthers in scoring with 15 points and McGregor followed up with 8. Defensively, Rickner praised Creek Gibson for his ability to alter the game at the perimeter.
“Special shoutout to him. He’s probably the MVP of this game ,” Rickner said. “[Chisum’s] leading scorer averages close to 20 a game, and Creek held him to absolutely nothing. People might not notice stuff like that and it’s not always going to show up in the box score, but he had the performance of the night.”
Paradise will play Hooks in the 3AII Region II Semifinal 6:30 p.m. Monday at Bonham High School.
The Panthers knocked off the Hornets 47-38 in the same round last year.
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