Jackets Win First Basketball Playoff Game in Eight Years

Abilene, TX–Winning 30 games in a high school basketball season is an impressive feat. When the 30th victory is the first playoff win since 2018, it’s a little more sweet. Stephenville did just that, in beating Memorial High School from Frenship last night, 62-50.

A tight game at the end of the first quarter saw Stephenville trail 17-15. The Jackets had to rely on scoring in the paint as the three-ball didn’t cooperate for most of the evening. For much of the season, Stephenville has been very explosive offensively because of their ability to bury three’s. It was a good sign to see the team win without the need of outside shooting. The Jackets would lead 25-21 at the half and 21 of their 25 points came from inside the paint.

Stephenville would push their lead to as many as 16 midway through the fourth quarter, but a run by Memorial cut the lead to eight. The Jackets called timeout to steady the ship and because of solid free throw shooting down the stretch, Memorial would not threaten again. Stephenville was 10/13 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

Leading Stephenville in scoring was Austin Hardin with 20 and Dillinger Thiebaud with 18. Other scorers were Rush Reisman with 9, Raidan Moody with 8 and Eli Espinoza with 7.

Next up for Stephenville will be an opportunity to win two playoff games in a season. This has not been accomplished since the stellar team of 2013 that went all the way to the Regional Finals. The Jackets will have their hands full as the top ranked team of the Region, Fort Worth Southwest, will be the opponent in the Area Round.  As of the time of this post being written, the game is tentatively set for Friday night at 7pm at Aledo High School.

The game can be heard on any of the KSTV platforms or watched on the NFHS Network.