Last March, Liberty Hills boys basketball team somehow missed out on a trip to the state tournament.

In the regional-championship round of the Class 3A playoffs, Liberty Hill held a 53-49 lead over Corpus Christi Miller with 79 seconds to play. With less than 12 seconds to go, the Panthers lead was 54-52, but Miller rallied to force overtime before eventually winning 61-59.

Making things even worse for Liberty Hill was that its loss came two days after the schools girls basketball team played in a state tournament game.

We had to hear about it through the end of the school year, senior guard Blake Danielak said.

The Panthers, who were 34-4 last season, will open the 2012-13 season as the sixth-ranked team in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 3A state poll. Leading them will be a backcourt that features two All-Central Texas honorees.

Senior point guard Shane LaCaille ranked among the Austin areas leaders in points (18.3 per game) and assists (7.0 per game) last season, and he earned All-Centex first-team honors. Danielak, who recently withdrew a commitment to Texas Tech, averaged 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.8 blocks as a junior.

LaCaille and Danielak are Liberty Hills only returning starters, but the coaches have high hopes for sophomore Callen Mikulencak and 6-foot-5-inch senior Tyler Eyre, who played at Vandegrift last season. A surprisingly early end to Liberty Hills football season also may boost the basketball team.

To this point, what weve been really been doing is trying to find some kind of identity and identify those nuts-and-bolts guys, said Liberty Hill coach Barry Boren, those guys that are going to pick up the slack for the ones that we lost.

This season, the Panthers will compete in District 8-3A, which features four teams that reached the playoffs in 2012. UIL realignment also has pushed Liberty Hill from Region IV to Region I, the home of top-ranked teams like Lubbock Estacado (third), Abilene Wylie (ninth) and Kennedale (10th).

And Liberty Hills shift isnt the only thing thats different about the Class 3A bracket this season.

Go here to see the original:

Liberty Hill seniors aim to lead Panthers to state tournament