Photo by Andre Odums/ossports
Whatever it takes to get the job done. United (31-0), a school in its third year of existence, met every challenge it faced this season. 31, to be exact. 32 if you included Covid-19.
Nothing stopped this underclassman laded team from the Beaumont Independent school district.
The Timberwolves entered the championship game with a 30-game winning streak and got all it wanted from Dallas Kimball before junior Terrance Arceneaux canned an NBA three-pointer with time ticking away, shocking the Knights in the Class 5A finals, 71-70 in overtime, to help Beaumont United claim its first state basketball title in school history.
Guard Kendris Henry in-bounded the ball to sophomore forward Trealyn Porchia, who found Arceneaux beyond the key. Arceneaux took one dribble and pulled up, stroking the trey from NBA range to send the crowd of burgundy and yellow screaming as time ticked down from three seconds until the buzzer sounded.
Arceneaux grabbed the MVP honors while guiding the Timberwolves with 24 points. Porchia chipped in 17 points, and Wesley Yates III poured in 16.
Kimball watched its last opportunity fold after a half-court shot fell short of the rim as it closed out the Knights’ season at (26-9) while losing a bid for its seventh state crown.
Despite trailing by 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Knights worked its way back into the game by converting baskets. Then Arterio Morris’ trey gave Dallas Kimball the lead, 59-58, with under three minutes left in regulation. And after stretching the lead, 64-61 with 20 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Knights had to deal with Arceneaux’s hot shooting as his three-pointer sent the game to overtime, 64-64.
Morris finished with 19 points, Jerqualen Parks scored 11, and Chauncey Gipson added 10.
The Timberwolves knew this season could be special after finishing last season 33-3 and falling 65-63 to Summer Creek in the quarterfinals.
United opened its doors in the fall of 2018 after Beaumont Central and Ozen merged, allowing the new school to surface.
The last time a Beaumont school faced Dallas Kimball, Central lost, 60-56 in the title game at the Frank Erwin Center on March 6, 2014. Top scorer E’Torrion Wilridge left the game with a strained MCL and never returned.
As next season awaits, the Timberwolves could have more to say with a young team returning.
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