Celebration is in order: Allen’s Cipoletta earns 200th career win

A win against Little Elm would give Cipoletta his 200^th coaching win.

The Eagles fulfilled their promise, delivering a 67-53 victory. Moments after the end of the game, white signs with the number “200” written in black ink were pulled out of a bag and players and coaches surrounded their victorious head coach to take a group picture.

“To me, just to share each and every win with all the groups of players that I have been around is so special,” Cipoletta said. “I’ve been blessed to be around some really good players.”

For a while, it appeared that Cipoletta’s 200^th win was going to come in convincing fashion. The Eagles converted eight Lobos turnovers in the second quarter into fast-break points. Allen senior Mekhi Johnson capped off a 12-point first half with two layups in the final 1:44, the first coming after a steal, to give the Eagles (20-6 overall, 5-0 District 5-6A) a 34-21 halftime lead.

Johnson made timely plays all night for the Eagles. The Allen senior countered timely baskets by Little Elm freshman Kensington Candler and junior Kellen Tasby to keep the Eagles on top. But when Allen allowed Little Elm senior guard Kenneth Gaines to find a rhythm in the third quarter, Johnson proceeded to turn back the Lobos.

Gaines is one of the Lobos’ top scorers this season, averaging 10.5 points per game. And after he saw his team trailing the Eagles by 11 points at halftime, Gaines took matters into his own hands. Gaines went on a personal 7-0 run to commence the third quarter, the final two coming on a play in which he made a spin move then finished a layup to reduce Allen’s lead to 34-28.

Gaines finished with 17 points.

“Every coach wants to have that guy they can get let loose,” said Damon Barnett, Little Elm head coach. “It started in the third quarter. We were able to get a couple of stops on defense and got some looks in transition. It got us right back in the game. But we’ve got to have more of that. We can’t have one guy do it all because they start isolating on that guy.”

Little Elm (12-13, 1-4) got as close as 38-33 after a Camron Brown jumper.

Allen had seen enough. A steal by the Eagles less than a couple of minutes later led to two more points for Johnson. Johnson scored the next six points for Allen, which took a 45-34 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“He plays big minutes for us,” Cipoletta said. “Just his energy and tenacity to get rebounds was next level for us. Every guy stepped up and did their role, and that’s what Mekhi’s role is. I’m really proud of him. His performance sparked us.”

With the game hanging in the balance, senior Dylan Archey provided the finishing touches on yet another win for Allen.

Archey made four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Eagles led by 19 points. He finished with a game-high 19 points.

“He’s a shooter,” Cipoletta said. “If you keep finding him, good things will happen.”