Knights turned up the pressure with team-high 12-steals as Central loses top player Wilridge to ACL strain  

Austin – Offense alone wasn’t the answer, but a championship defense keyed by Allen pushed the Knights into familiar territory.  

With seconds ticking away, Dallas Kimball used a team-high 12 steals and watched as forward D’Angelo Allen blocked a game-tying basket, to help the Knights beat the Beaumont Central Jaguars, 60-56 in the Class 4A Semifinals on Thursday night at the Frank Erwin Center. 

With 20 seconds left, Allen, a fourth-year varsity letterman, who is known for making timely defensive-stops, blocked Michael Jacquet’s potential game-tying basket, which led to Xavier Johnson’s layup to sum up the scoring. 

“Coach Snoop called a time out after we had just turned the ball over,” Kimball’s Allen continued. “When I saw a Central player go past one of my teammates with the ball, I reacted quickly there, to get the last block. I’ve never lost a playoff game. I’ve always lost or won in the championship game.” 

After last year’s painful title-game loss to Terry, the Knights advanced to its fourth consecutive title game where it will face Amarillo (28-5), a 60-46 winner over Schertz Clemens, on Saturday at 3 pm at the Erwin Center. 

Kimball claimed titles in 2011, 2012, and finished as a finalist in 2013. 

Losing top scorer Forward E’Torrion Wildridge, who leads a unit with no seniors in the starting lineup, left the game with 1:06 remaining in the first quarter, which forced Central to look elsewhere for scoring. Wildridge finished with eight points. 

The Knights (24-7) showed the third arsenal of its game. Its quickness and swarming defense ripped the Jaguars for 12 steals. It added fuel to its transition game, accommodating Kimball with a minimum lead most of the evening. 

At that time, the Jaguars had suffered its worst drop off. 

Junior guard Jawun Evans, who scored a game-high 23 points, kept things hot on offense for the Knights with explosive moves to the goal and hot shooting from the perimeter. 

Allen, Dondre Carter, and Xavier Johnson were other Knights in double figures with 11 points each. Allen also finished with five blocks. 

For Central (31-6), it was a night of missed opportunities and carelessness with the ball, which ultimately caught up to them. Twice with less than two minutes left in the game, the Jaguars couldn’t gather the rebound after Kimball missed the front end of two one-and-ones. Then moments after, a turnover damned another golden opportunity. 

Nigel Pearson led Central with 23 points, and Andre Morris tossed in 10. 

Adding to Central’s disappointment, two missed layup attempts, one of the two would have tied the game at 52. 

Central trailed 54-47 entering the fourth quarter. Despite weathering the Knights’ sequence of scoring opportunities on most of its second-half possessions, the Jaguars drew within two points, after Pearson drove to the basket, converting a layup while drawing a foul. The bonus basket cut Kimball’s lead 56-54 with 4:37 left. 

“We never got in sync, and a lot of it had to do with Central doing a good job,” Knights coach Royce Johnson added. “When the kid Wildridge went out, I think Central guards got a little more aggressive than what we saw on the film. It was almost like they picked it up and had nothing to lose. We’ve been in that situation before.” 

“I told the guys at halftime, this was going to come down to the end unless we put it away in the first four minutes of the third quarter, and we didn’t do that,” said Johnson. 

Kimball then forced a five-second violation on Pearson, leaving him no one to inbound the ball. 

Senior guard Dondre Carter wasted no time, opening the game with a trey from the right baseline to give Kimball, 3-0 lead. Then Andre Morris and Nijal Pearson scored six points to give Central a 6-5 lead with 5:30 left in the first quarter. 

Both teams kept the game flow moving at a fast pace. 

After Wildridge left the game, Kimball regained the lead and led 21-18 after one. 

“It always hurts when you lose your leading scorer,” Central coach Robert Lee said, speaking of forward E’Torrion Wildridge. “But they’re a good ball club, and we are too.” 

The offensive show continued for both teams in the second quarter before Kimball came up with four steals, which helped build its largest lead of the game 43-36 entering halftime. 

Serval trips down the court proved challenging, stopping the Knights, who effortlessly found open players for inside baskets as well as from around the perimeter. 

Kimball watched its most considerable lead swell to 11-points after a midrange jumper from Allen to lead 54-43 with 1:43 left in the third quarter. 

Then the block shot coupled with Johnson’s layup stretched Kimball’s lead to four, 60-56 as it proved to be the dagger with 11 seconds left.