Denton Guyer wins Whataburger

Haltom City - The game was decided on a Jalen Wilson three-pointer with 9.3 seconds left, and the Whataburger Championship went to the Denton Guyer Wildcats after a missed three-point attempt by Lakeview Centennial's Brendan Brooks. The Wildcats beat the Patriots 75-74, and the missed three-point shot by Brooks was rebounded by Wilson.

Wilson finished the game with a game-high of 21 points, and his game-winning three-pointer was his only one of the night as he finished 1-for-4 from behind the arc.

With 24 seconds to go in the game, Guyer's head coach Grant Long called a timeout to set up what became the game-winner. Long says that his team executed the play to win the game.

"De'Vion (Harmon) was to come off a dribble-handoff and he had Jalen, or he could have taken the ball to the hole, but [DeVion] made a great decision to give the ball up to a wide open Jalen and it went in."

The 59th Whataburger Tournament Championship was a thriller with plenty of lead changes.

In the second quarter, Guyer flirted with a double-digit lead up 38-30, but couldn't hold off the attack of Centennial. Ki'Ore Smith hit a three from the right corner as he was fouled and completed the four-point play to get within one, 38-37, and the Patriots would eventually take a half-time lead of 41-40.

"We talked before the game that [Centennial] could go up in a hurry and we saw that in a game earlier," said Long. "They can really shoot the ball and get themselves back in the game because of their tempo on offense. We emphasized to our guys to stay strong and keep after them."

To begin the third, Zhaire Smith hit a floater to go up three (43-40) and later in the quarter, Nicolas Rene finished through contact to give the Patriots a five-point advantage 51-46, and it capped a 21-8 run that spanned over six minutes.

Heading into the fourth, the Patriots held a 59-56 lead. Rene drained an open three-pointer 40 seconds into the quarter to get a six-point lead at 62-56. Guyer would inch back and with 5:06 to go, Centennial's Brooks was called for a moving screen which resulted in a Grayson Carter Layup to take the lead 65-64. With 3:41 left, Wilson found Carter open under the basket for a five-point Guyer lead (69-64) on a 13-8 run.

"The game was all about stops on the defensive end," said Long. "We tried to stop them so it could lead to our transition offensive. We got away from doing certain things that contributed to Centennial's lead. We started walking the ball up too many times and I wanted us to get back to running and creating plays off our speed."

The Patriots had one late run in them as they took the lead 71-69 as Smith stole the ball and made an easy dunk at the other end of the court with 1:29.

It was now Carter's turn for the Wildcats to be a hero as he connected on an "And1" to give Guyer a 72-69 lead. That was followed by Christopher Eyo's two-free-throws to give the lead back to the Patriots prior to Wilson's three-pointer to end the game.