One year after heartbreak, Stony Points gets another shot at San Antonio Brennan | Cantu

Coach Antoine Thompson and his Stony Point basketball team have waited a year to get a second chance.

The Tigers are 35-1 and have won three straight district championships, but those feats only served as steppingstones for the regional championships this weekend in San Antonio. Stony Point will play San Antonio Brennan (again) in a regional semifinal (again) at Northside Sports Gym (again) on Friday night.

"57-43."

Thompson recites the score of last year's season-ending loss to Brennan, calling it "the elephant in the room." The memory still hurts. The Tigers had compiled a magnificent 32-1 record heading into that Region IV-6A semifinal, but they simply had a bad day.

"We will be back," he said confidently as he walked off the court for the final time last March.

It's rare that a team that absorbs a heartbreaking loss gets another opportunity for state glory. That's why the team's motto — Unfinished Business — seems so appropriate. The Tigers are even better this year and they earned a repeat match against Brennan after overcoming stubborn Westlake 49-35 on Tuesday in a regional quarterfinal playoff at Burger Center.

Stony Point has the roster to back up its record

Stony Point has reason to feel optimistic. Villanova-bound forward Josiah Moseley, whose strong legs and leaping ability remind folks of Kansas junior (and former Westlake Chaparral) KJ Adams, is one of the most dynamic high school basketball players in the state.

More: Stony Point dictates tempo in victory over Westlake

But as the Tigers proved against Westlake, they're not a one-man band. They have capable players such as guards Uzziah Buntyn and Alan Guyton Jr. and 6-foot-8 post Davaughn Hueitt. And guard Junior Goodlet stepped to the forefront, canning 16 points in a defensive struggle.

In a tale of two halves, the Tigers picked up the pace when it mattered and dominated the final two quarters.

"Our athleticism, our pace, our conditioning really honed in in the fourth quarter," Thompson said. "(The Chaps) seemed very fatigued in the fourth quarter. Our guys have been before. That's how we practice, that's how we work on a day-to-day basis. It was a phenomenal job from our players, one through eight who played, in the fourth quarter."

Bringing the LBJ basketball culture to Stony Point

While the Tigers deserve credit for compiling a 67-3 record over the past two years, their success would not have been possible without Thompson. He was lured from LBJ three years ago as an assistant and was named head coach in the summer of 2022. Prior to Stony Point, he had spent five seasons as the lead assistant for coaching legend Freddie Roland.

Thompson took a page from Roland's playbook when he got the Stony Point job. His teams are winning with solid defense, athleticism and creating a pace that's difficult for opponents to handle. Such was the case in the victory over Westlake.

"They finally responded to the pace of the game (in the second half)," Thompson said. "That's when we played the game at our pace. Westlake dictated the first two quarters. We knew they couldn't sustain playing at our pace."

Cavaliers basketball coming on strong

While Stony Point deserves credit for reaching the regional tournament for the second straight year, no Austin-area team has been more impressive in the playoffs than Lake Travis, which advanced with a 56-46 victory over San Antonio East Central on Tuesday.

Like Stony Point, Lake Travis (32-5) has a collection of talented players led by a dominating big man. In this case, 6-foot-7 junior wing Hudson Greer has already received offers from some of the biggest names in college basketball: UCLA, Arizona, LSU, Oklahoma State, Michigan, Alabama, Creighton, Iowa, Arkansas, California and Texas.

Greer, who missed nine regular-season games with an arm injury, leads the Cavaliers with 23 points and 7.5 rebounds a game. They also get healthy contributions from three other juniors: Jayden Thomas (13.3 ppg), guard Adrian Mathis (11.2 ppg) and guard Chas Biegel (8.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 4.9 apg).

More: Lake Travis boys thump East Central to advance to regionals

Mathis had the biggest shot of the night against East Central, hitting a 60-foot buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter to give his team a 43-36 lead. The Cavs were never seriously challenged in the fourth quarter.

The Cavaliers, making their first regional tournament appearance since 2018, are led by first-year head coach Brandon Shaver. They will battle San Antonio O'Connor on Friday night.

A Lake Travis-Stony Point regional championship game looms on Saturday afternoon if both win their respective games Friday night. For what it's worth, Stony Point edged Lake Travis 66-63 on Dec. 2.

On to regionals

Friday’s regional semifinals: Class 6A — Lake Travis vs. San Antonio O'Connor, 5 p.m., Northside ISD Sports Gym in San Antonio; Stony Point vs. San Antonio Brennan, 7:25 p.m., Northside; Class 2A — Thrall vs. Kenedy, 8 p.m., Johnson High School in Buda; TAPPS Class 5A state semifinal — St. Michael's vs. Midland Christian, 2 p.m., Waco University High School

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Stony Point, Lake Travis boys basketball teams advance to regionals