FLOWER MOUND — The coaches in Monday’s Class 3A Region II quarterfinal might have had opposing views of what happened, but an uncharacteristically poor shooting performance from Argyle resulted in the Eagles being sent home from the playoffs after a 51-45 loss to Carrollton Ranchview.

DRC/Al Key

Argyle’s Connor York, bottom, pursues a loose ball with Carrollton Ranchview’s Jordan Washington during a Class 3A Region II quarterfinal on Monday in Flower Mound.

View larger More photos Photo store

The Eagles shot just 5-of-23 from beyond the arc and did not have a single player reach double figures, while Ranchview head coach Dee Boyd used his limited scoring resources to move on to the regional tournament.

“We never shoot well,” Boyd said. “It was an emotional game. Argyle is a good team. They’re really young. They [Ranchview] stepped up. We got some baskets and had some breaks when we needed them, and all year they’ve been doing this. They [Ranchview] play horrible ball but somehow we get the ‘W.’”

No Eagles player could get anything going offensively, as they led 12-8 after the first quarter but quickly lost the lead and played back-and-forth with Ranchview (19-13) before taking the lead for the final time with 4:59 to play in the third quarter.

Argyle’s leading scorer, sophomore Clarke Overlander, finished the night with just four points and shot 1-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Though his team did not shoot like it usually does, Argyle head coach John King said he was pleased with his its defensive effort and thought it was good enough to win the ball game.

“Our goal is to hold people under 50 points,” King said. “We feel if we do that we’ll have a good opportunity to win in the end. Unfortunately, we didn’t shoot well tonight. Part was their defense and part was we were just off a little.”

Boyd said his players knew they would have to contain Overlander, a lethal outside shooter, but they also did a good job on junior Doug Fryer, another of the Eagles’ top scorers who led the team with nine points.

“He was one of the key guys we were guarding,” Boyd said. “But it [his off night] wasn’t anything to do with us. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and wasn’t able to get a lot of shots. He got in foul trouble.”

Overlander and Fryer both picked up their third fouls near the end of the first half and fouled out in the final minute of the game.

“I think we did get in foul trouble, and I saw some of the kids not playing defense like they normally do,” King said. “We commented on that in a huddle and I thought we got it fixed, but unfortunately it maybe led to being too aggressive. You can’t control officials, you can only control what you can control. I really have no comment on the fouls.”

Ranchview senior Ben Uno scored a game-high 17 points, including nine in the second quarter and 15 in the first half, and the Eagles (25-9) made a key adjustment to limit his scoring in the second half.

“We talked at halftime how he was just more of a penetrator and a finish-around-the-goal type of guy then a shooter,” King said. “We backed off and encouraged him to shoot. He still didn’t shoot much from the outside but we were waiting for him and we did better on him in the second half.”

Even though the Eagles shot just 22 percent from three-point range, King was pleased with his team’s effort for still being in the game, down two points with the ball and 46 seconds on the clock.

“Ranchview’s a good team,” he said. “Let’s give them credit. They played [defending state champion and top-ranked Dallas] Madison to three points so for us to have a shot with 30 seconds left to take the lead, given an off night, I think that speaks well for our kids.”

The Eagles will lose just one player to graduation and return all five starters next season, leaving King with disappointment but also a lot to look forward to next season.

“What we talked about after the game was it [the postseason] gave us three games of good playoff experience going into next year,” he said. “We do have the majority of our team back, and I think that taste of what we could get will lead us to work hard into off-season and into next season.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.  

Ranchview 51, Argyle 45

Ranchview (19-13) – Sam Roberts 11, Niem Stevenson 7, Ben Uno 17, Barry McCary 13.

Argyle (25-9) – Patrick Resch 8, Connor York 8, Mason Mead 3, Andrew Resch 6, Wes King 3, Clarke Overlander 4, Doug Fryer 9, Justin Hommel 4.