The Dallas Morning News Sports: Top Stories Column: D-FW Area Teams Vie for State Titles
By Sports: Top Stories, The Dallas Morning News
Mar. 10–Class 4A fray between SOC and FW Dunbar highlights huge day
By TIM MacMAHON / Staff Writer
AUSTIN — The Class 4A final is the marquee matchup in a day that could end with four area teams clutching state championship trophies.
Defending 4A champion South Oak Cliff and Fort Worth Dunbar, perennial powers with a combined 23 state tournament appearances, will probably play in front of a packed house at 4 p.m. today in the Erwin Center.
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The crowd will see if 6-9 Darrell Arthur, a McDonald’s All-American, lives up to his reputation of rising to the occasion for big games in his last appearance in a SOC uniform. And they’ll see if Dunbar’s depth and speed can make up for a major size mismatch.
“Stop Six vs. Oak Cliff — this is what the people wanted,” said SOC coach James Mays II, whose team lost to Dunbar in a 2003 state semifinal. “I know it’s not going to be easy.”
The 3A final is an all-Dallas area affair. Roosevelt and Carrollton Ranchview, two young teams that will be district rivals next season, meet at 11:30 a.m. today. It’s a rematch of a playoff warm-up game won by Roosevelt, 61-59.
“They’re playing at a different level than they were in that game,” Roosevelt coach Stanford Hill Jr. said of Ranchview. “And warm-up games don’t count toward a state championship.”
Ponder, a Denton County school trying to win its second state title of the decade, will play Arp in a 2A final at 10 a.m. today.
Defending 5A champion Kingwood will face the winner of Friday’s late semifinal between Plano and Richardson Berkner in the 8 p.m. finale.
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