SAN ANTONIO — Facing a much larger lineup, the young Silsbee Tigers knew they would have their hands full with top-ranked Faith Family Academy out of Oak Cliff.
Early on that size disadvantage was apparent with the Eagles taking a 13-3 lead to start the game.
Moments later Silsbee's mentality changed.
The Tigers young guard started attacking Faith Family's big men and used their speed to create matchup problems.
By the end of the the first half Silsbee trailed 39-31, with confidence building.
The Tigers continued to go toe-to-toe with Faith Family in the second half, cutting the Eagles' lead down to single digits multiple times.
Unfortunately the teams played dead even in the second half, allowing Faith Family to escape 70-62 win.
Coach Joe Sigler's team overcame a huge height disadvantage to out rebound the Eagles' 37-35.
"You know, basketball favors toughness and a team like that, I don't even know if they offer football at faith family, if they don't, then that's a group of guys that can basically play basketball year round. If I've got to go play a team like that, these are the guys I want to go play with. Rebounding, the toughness on the defense, even though we've got a lot of fouls called on us, but again basketball favors toughness. I thought we played tough. I thought we made them have to step their game up."
Sophomore Dre'lon Miller paced Silsbee with a double-double, filling it up with 28 points while grabbing ten rebounds.
"Honestly I just had to attack them. Get their bigs in foul trouble and try to go to the free throw line. Knock down my free throws. Really, my teammates kept me up. Kept me going. We had a lot of players foul out we just had to keep going and keep pushing until there was zero seconds on the clock."
Jared Harris was also in double figures, finishing with 14 points.
Faith Family was led by TJ Caldwell who had 18 points. JT Tippin had 15.