Reed's big day, fast start sparks Abilene Cooper past Lubbock Coronado in boys basketball

Colin Reed signed to play baseball at Southern Arkansas in November.

The Cooper senior is rethinking that decision after scoring a game-high 35 points in the Cougars’ 67-46 victory over Lubbock Coronado on Saturday at Cougar Gym.

“I think about it sometimes,” Reed said about choosing baseball over basketball when he goes to college next season. “I don’t know. Maybe I might (play basketball, too). I’m keeping my doors open.”

The 5-foot-11 guard was pressed into the starting point guard role the past two games while senior Andrew Gonzalez is in isolation with COVID-19.

Gonzalez is expected to return Tuesday.

Reed was pretty dangerous Saturday with the ball in his hands – hitting eight of his 13 shots in the first half, including four of his six 3-point goals.

Reed said he was buoyed by his teammates, who did a good job moving the ball around and finding the open guy.

“That ball movement and that chemistry together, I feel like that’s what gets us going,” Reed said.

There were times in the first half when it appeared anything Reed tossed up went in. He admitted he felt that way, too.

“The rim did look a little bit bigger than usual, so, yeah,” Reed said.

Cooper coach Bryan Conover was impressed with Reed’s day, including his job taking care of the ball as the team’s point guard. Conover thought he did well taking care of the ball, but it was his shooting that stood out.

“He’s really streaky, man,” Conover said. “He gets going, and his confidence soars. He was able to get after it today.”

Jalen Cherry added 19 points, and Jaelyn Rivera followed with 10 as Cooper (16-7) has opened defense of its District 4-5A title by winning its first three games.

Tyler Williams led the Mustangs (12-13, 0-3) with 14 points, while Cam Manahan and Ty Green added 12 and 11, respectively.

Saturday’s game was scheduled for Tuesday, but it was postponed because of COVID-19 issues with the Coogs. That meant playing Wylie and Coronado on consecutive days, and Cooper took care of both – beating Wylie 54-41 less than 24 hours earlier.

“Credit to our kids,” Conover said. “Everything was against us this week. We’ve got guys sick. We’ve got guys out. We’ve got to play back-to-back games. This is where we build our mental toughness. Come out, just do the job we’re supposed to do. Go beat two teams back-to-back at home and be 3-0.”

Coogs deliver knockout punch early

Cooper delivered the knockout punch early, scoring the first 16 points and rolling to a 42-12 halftime lead. The Coogs hit 16 of 27 shots in the half, including six treys. They were 9 of 15 in the first quarter, at one point hitting five consecutive shots, including four 3s.

Coronado missed its first eight shots and hit 5 of 25 in the half.

“That’s what we talked about,” Conover said. “They had to come here and (play) an early game. We thought it would be important to get off to a really good start – throw the first punch and get out to a good lead. We were able to do that. To their credit, they stormed out in the second half.”

Coronado hit three treys in the first 1:37 of the second half to quickly make it a 45-27 game. The Mustangs outscored Cooper 17-8 in the third quarter but still trailed 50-29.

The Coogs finished the game converting 24 of 53 shots, while Coronado hit 18 of 57. Cooper hit nine 3s, while the Mustangs hit five.

“There’s no magic recipe,” Conover said. “When your kids go out and make shots, it makes my job a lot easier. … It’s enjoyable to just sit back and watch our guys go play sometimes. We’re tough to beat when we’re hitting shots like that.”

Cooper plays Lubbock-Cooper (10-16, 1-2) on Tuesday in Woodrow. The Pirates beat Lubbock High 61-53 on Friday.

Joey D. Richards covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him at Twitter at ARN_Joey. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

DISTRICT 4-5A

Cooper 67, Lubbock Coronado 46

Coronado … 7 … 5 … 17 … 17 – 46

Cooper … 25 … 17 … 8 … 17 – 67

LUBBOCK CORONADO (12-13, 0-3) – Ty Green 4 2-5 11, Gavin Willis 0 0-0 0, Kevon Evans 0 0-0 0, Cam Manahan 5 1-2 12, Surreal Garrett 1 0-0 3, Kaleel Campbell 1 0-1 2, Tyler Williams 5 2-2 14, Derrick Kembe 2 0-0 4, Russell Davis 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 5-10 46.

COOPER (16-7, 3-0) – Kale Sage 0 0-0 0, Colin Reed 13 3-4 35, Jordan Willis 0 0-0 0, Jaelyn Rivera 3 4-4 10, Maxwell Falade 0 0-0 0, Kameron Gray 1 0-0 2, Tristen Rau 0 1-2 1, Jalen Cherry 7 2-2 19. Totals 24 10-12 67.

3-Point Goals – Coronado 5 (Green, Manahan, Garrett, Williams 2), Cooper 9 (Reed 6, Cherry 3). Total Fouls – Coronado 14, Cooper 10. Fouled Out – None. Technical Fouls – None.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene Cooper rolls past Lubbock Coronado in District 4-5A basketball