An up-and-down season came to an end for the Grapevine varsity basketball team last week as the Mustangs fell short in a one-game tiebreaker against Southlake Carroll to determine the final qualifier from District 5-5A.
    The Dragons led for most of the contest, taking a 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime before putting the game away in the second half.
    Grapevine was able to trim the Carroll lead to six points midway through the third quarter, but that's as close as the Mustangs would get in the 60-46 defeat.
    It was a disappointing conclusion for coach Darryn Shearmire and his troops, who dropped their fourth straight contest after winning three straight games to put themselves in a position to make the playoffs.
    "We were just real flat," said Shearmire. "We just never got off to a good start. We made  a little run there in the third quarter, but they answered every shot we made. We just couldn't get any stops."
    Shearmire said his team did well in overcoming adversity this year before simply running out of gas down the stretch.
    "We did a good job of overcoming some of the disadvantages we had in height against other teams—more than I think people expected us to," said Shearmire. "But we just weren't able to finish it off. The later in the season that you get in our district—the tougher it gets."
    Dylan Thompson finished with 14 points in the loss, which left the Mustangs with a final overall record of 14-18.
    Carroll advances to play Lewisville this week in a bi-district match-up after improving to 19-12 for the year.