Sports

Recoiling after a hard home loss to Waco University, Ennis made quick work of winless Cleburne, 76- 36, on the road Tuesday at the Jeff Cody Gym.

Missed opportunities at the charity stripe prevented winning a close game as well as a chance to move into first place in a 46-42 Ennis setback to University High School on Jan. 15.

Building a nucleus for the future, the Ennis girls basketball team had plenty of desire and fight on display in a 55-43 home loss to Waco’s University High School on Friday.

Head Coach Keith Howard has released the schedule for spring tennis and once again his Ennis team is favored to win the district and advance into the state playoffs.

Progress continues upward at Italy under HC Craig Horn, with this year’s edition winning the District 8-2A championship at 5-0. The Gladiators have qualified for the playoffs in each of his three seasons, going 4-7, 8-4 and 9-2.

Flying out of the blocks, Ennis jumped to an early 12-point lead and held off any comeback attempt by Corsicana in a 70-56 triumph on the road on Tuesday.

Stunned as if a good boxer had just been caught with a startling left hook and a stultifying right, Red Oak a local basketball power for years, was stunned by Ennis, 61-56, on Friday, Jan. 8.

It wasn’t the encore they preferred, though following an 11-1 season, the best-ever for Class 1A Avalon, the team overcame a miserable start to somehow qualify for the playoffs. It didn’t last long, but it did point the Eagles toward an optimistic future.

Jason Bachtel, 40, was hired on Jan. 7 as the new head coach at NCAA Division III Howard Payne University. A 2003 alumnus at HPU, he was introduced at a press conference in Brownwood (170 miles SW of Ennis) the following day.

Class 5A, Division II football entered Week 5 of the six-week odyssey known as the playoffs. It’s not easy to reach the final, though Ennis done in five times in 32 years of making the playoffs. This year’s Lions, ranked No.