Wednesday’s weather-rescheduled matchup between the Shepherd Pirates and the Tarkington Longhorns delivered everything fans could ask for — a packed gym with standing-room only, relentless hustle, clutch free throws, hard-nosed defense, and a finish that came down to the final seconds.
When the final buzzer sounded, it was the Shepherd Pirates who walked away with a stunning 77-75 upset over the Longhorns.
The rematch looked nothing like the first meeting between these two teams earlier in the season. In that earlier contest, Tarkington controlled the tempo and used heavy defensive pressure on Shepherd’s inside presence, Brayden White, allowing the Longhorns to score at will. Wednesday night told a very different story.
With several more varsity games under their belts and confidence growing, the Pirates were ready.
“We learned a lot from the first time we played them,” said Shepherd Head Coach Jeremy Bennett. “They used a full-court press on us and we struggled. This time, we were ready, and we decided to put pressure on them for all four quarters.”
That decision paid off.
Shepherd’s full-court press forced Tarkington to work the entire length of the floor and opened lanes inside for White, who was dominant on both ends of the hardwood. White delivered a monster performance, posting 44 points, 21 rebounds, 4 assists, and shooting an outstanding 13-of-14 from the free-throw line.
“We fought with everything we had,” White said after the game. “It wasn’t easy, but we didn’t leave anything on the court, nothing at all.”
Bryson Goodman echoed the sentiment: “We knew how important this game was for staying in the playoff hunt. We went all out.”
Other top scorers were Benjamin Coyle with 15 and Jamal Horton with 14 points, including two three-pointers.
The momentum from the win was short-lived, as the Pirates were downed by Hamshire-Fannett 99-70 on Friday.
Still, White was firing on all cylinders, scoring 42 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. Benjamin Coyle added 12 points on the night.
The Trojans posted their third loss in a row, falling to Onalaska 111-43 on Friday. Prior to that, they were downed 70-53 by Crockett on Wednesday.
