Farmersville junior Devin Swain Jr. dunks during the second half against Dallas HSAA on Monday, Jan. 5. Photo by Victor Tapia / C&S Media

By David Wolman

[email protected]

Farmersville head boys basketball coach Kingsley Akinwole couldn’t remember a time when his players missed as many shots in succession as they did during the first quarter of a Jan. 5 home game against Dallas HSAA.

Two feet. Ten feet. Twenty feet away from the basket.

Despite Farmersville’s hard work to pull down one offensive rebound, nothing fell through the hoop.

For a team that lives and dies by the 3-pointer, junior guard Christian Smith knew Farmersville had to change its offensive approach. He said the Farmers would have better success attacking the basket instead of settling for jump shots.

Being aggressive and not settling for jumpers proved to be the adjustment Farmersville needed to overcome an early 12-point deficit and rally for a 66-47 victory.

The game marked the second time this season Farmersville faced HSAA. After defeating the Angels 69-49 on Dec. 12, Smith knew HSAA would be looking for revenge.

For the first one and a half quarters, it appeared HSAA was on its way to doing just that.

HSAA jumped out to an 8-0 lead less than four minutes into the game, with much of the early damage done by junior forward Xavier Carter. Carter scored six of his team’s first eight points and 11 of his team-high 22 points in the first quarter, including a layup and a free throw with 2:05 left to give HSAA a 15-3 lead.

Farmersville scored just four points in the first quarter — which included only one field goal, a Chavez layup.

In need of a spark, Smith provided it.

With his shots not falling early, Smith told himself to keep shooting, and they finally began to drop in the second quarter. He scored 12 of his game-high 26 points during the period, including three 3-pointers. His third made 3-pointer trimmed Farmersville’s deficit to 25-24.

“Akinwole just told us to go out there and keep playing our game and that our shots were going to fall,” Smith said. “We knew HSAA was going to come out with energy because we beat them the last time we played them. That’s what they did in the first quarter. They hit us in the mouth. We came out slow, and that’s what happens when you don’t play with energy.”

While the shots began to fall, Farmersville struggled at the free-throw line.

The Farmers went 5 of 13 from the charity stripe in the first half and made just eight of their first 19 attempts overall. Those misses prevented Farmersville from building a significant lead. However, the Farmers worked through the struggles and converted their final 12 free throws.

“We’ve got to get back in the gym for those,” junior Koby Chavez said. “We couldn’t get one to fall. At the end of the day, we’ve got to keep shooting and keep getting them to foul.”

Farmersville took its first lead of the game on a Chavez free throw with 4:25 left in the third quarter.

That foul shot was part of a 40-19 second-half run by the Farmers.

Junior Devin Swain Jr. finished with 16 points, followed by 10 from Chavez. Sophomore Tavian Smith added six points, while sophomore Kayleb Cuellar and junior Jeremiah Decker scored four apiece.

Farmersville will carry a 20-1 record into its District 13-4A opener at Sunnyvale on Friday, Jan. 16.

“It feels good to be 20-1,” Smith said. “That one loss, I feel like we can get it back and beat them. But it feels good coming off the record that we had last year.”