Last March, Liberty Hills boys basketball team somehow missed out on a trip to the state tournament. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
We had to hear about it through the end of the school year, senior guard Blake Danielak said. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
And Liberty Hills shift isnt the only thing thats different about the Class 3A bracket this season. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Go here to see the original: <\/p>\n
Liberty Hill seniors aim to lead Panthers to state tournament<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. Continue reading