The Forestburg Longhorns won their first playoff game in nine years by beating Newcastle on Tuesday night.
The Longhorns won 53-46 against the Bobcats in a close and emotional game before losing in the area round to Dodd City on Thursday night 61-26.
Forestburg came into the playoffs in a bit of a funk. With second place wrapped up in the district standings, the Longhorns had lost their three previous games, with the most recent two being close heartbreakers.
Newcastle was a shorter and athletic team that was led by an electric point guard Isaac King who seemed to score on any transition opportunity.
Forestburg had the size advantage and seemed to handle Newcastle’s press defense the majority of the time.
The Longhorns wanted to slow it down and play inside out, using their size advantage in the post or finding openings in the mid-range against the Bobcats zone defense.
Forestburg led 15-13 after the first quarter, with Newcastle being carried by King who scored 11 of his team’s points. He had to sit for long stretches in the middle quarters due to foul trouble and the Longhorns took advantage.
Forestburg led 25-19 at halftime and got out to a double-digit lead in the third quarter despite key post player Kyler Willett sitting with his own foul trouble.
Leading scorer Jesus Sanchez put an exclamation point on his team’s momentum by sinking a half-court buzzer beater heading into the fourth quarter, putting the Longhorns up 41-30.
Newcastle picked up the intensity on its press and started to create some turnovers. Forestburg was trying to run some clock at the same time, but the Bobcats picked up momentum and started closing the gap.
Newcastle cut it to two points, down 48-46 in the final two minutes. The Bobcats had an opportunity to tie the game following a steal, laying the ball up with 1:25 left in the game.
However, the basket was wiped away as the player was called for traveling.
Newcastle had one more opportunity to tie the game in the final minute, but Forestburg’s Angel Cruz stole the ball away and threw the ball ahead to Sanchez who was fouled following his layup. He made the free throw to complete the 3-point play and clinch the game.
Forestburg scored one more basket at the very end to make the final score 53-46.
The playoff win was the first for the Forestburg boy’s basketball program since 2015.
The Longhorns did not have much time to bask in the win as they played the ninth ranked team in the state in 1A Dodd City on Thursday night.
Unfortunately, it was not a close game.
Forestburg had trouble scoring all game, only scoring in double-figures in the fourth quarter.
The Hornets were raining 3-pointers early on and led 29-12 at halftime. With Dodd City then scoring 24 points in the third quarter, the game was out of reach.
Forestburg did outscore the Hornets in the fourth quarter, but the lead was too big as Dodd City won 61-26.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.