Union City High School's boys basketball team had a breakout year in its first season as a member of the Washita Valley Conference.
The Tigers posted a 6-4 record and the effort landed two seniors, Jacob Cervantes and Nathan Cullen, on the league's All-Conference team – which is a 10-player squad.
“They don't have a first or second team, it's just a 10-player squad,” Union City head coach Andy Tatum said.
Cervantes was without question one of the best point guards in the league, a statement Tatum said was confirmed by most of the opposing coaches.
“I never knew if they were sandbagging me or not, but coaches were coming up before the game and telling me they had no one that could cover Cervantes,” Tatum said.
The numbers favored those claims.
Cervantes, who moved to Union City from Mustang, played in a total of 26 games and was shut out in the scoring department only once. He had 20 games in which he scored in double digits, 15 of those were 20 points or more. Two of those 15 games went for 30 points.
“It's really good to have confidence in your point guard that he can handle the basketball and make good decisions,” Tatum said. “He was a good outside shooter, but he could also take you off the dribble and go to the hole.”
Cervantes scored a team-high 481 points, which broke down to 18.5 points per game. He grabbed a total of 138 rebounds or 5.3 per outing, and logged two games in double digits based on points and caroms.
“We had a couple of sets that were designed to keep the ball in his hands as much as possible,” Tatum said.
Tatum said Cervantes was a workhorse as far as getting clutch points.
“I could tell him that I needed 10 points and he would go off on a tear for as long as I would keep him in the game,” Tatum said.
What made Cervantes hard to stop, said Tatum, was his ability to see the court – especially on the fly.
“He's a good passer and could find the open people on the floor,” Tatum said. “If he was not going to score, he was going to get the ball to the right person.”
Cervantes had 211 assists for the season, an average of 8.1 per game, with eight games ending in double digits. He was a threat on defense as well, logging 127 steals (4.9 per game) and 17 blocks. Cervantes had three games in which he posted 10 steals.
While Cervantes was a threat from the point, Cullen confused defenders with the height of a post player but the deep shooting skills of a guard.
“At the start of the year, I didn't know if I was going to use him as a post or not,” Tatum said. “But we ended up playing him on the perimeter which worked out the best.”
Cullen's size allowed him to shoot over people from most spots on the floor.
“He could shoot over people on the outside, but he could also take the ball to the hole if we needed,” Tatum said.
Cullen played in 27 games, ending with 458 points or an average of 16.9 points per game. He had 24 games in which he scored in double digits, 11 of those going for 20 or more.
“He's a different style of shooter,” Tatum said. “He shoots with two hands and last year I tried to work with him, but the ball was going in the hole so I didn't change it.”
Cullen grabbed 206 rebounds or an average of 7.6 per outing – both team highs. He had a team-leading 10 games with double digits in both scoring and rebounds. He added 63 assists (2.3 pg) to his resume.
Like Cervantes, Cullen had quick hands-on defense. He logged 69 steals (2.6 pg) and had 15 blocked shots.