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Academy is home to the area's hottest boys basketball team

The Bees have won six in a row, including the stacked Tenaha holiday tournament.

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LITTLE RIVER-ACADEMY, Texas — If you look up in the Academy High School gym, you can see the tradition of the Bumblebees' basketball program, complete with a 2002 state championship.

And as the air outside continues to cool off, this year's Bees are inside, heating up.

"We've been playing together since we were young," senior forward Ryan White said. "So, the chemistry is obviously there. We know each others' habits and what the others are going to do."

Junior forward Tanner Rambeau added, "That chemistry has always been there and it wasn't anything new for us. We just went out there and started playing."

After Tuesday's win at Rockdale, Academy has won five in a row, including the impressive Tenaha holiday tournament. In that tournament, Academy beat three Top-10 teams en route to moving up to No. 10 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches boys rankings.

That's when this team clicked, according to its leading scorer, junior guard Jaylin McWilliams.

"That first game, we clicked immediately," McWilliams said. "I think that's the game we needed to come together."

James Holt is in his fourth year as coach of the boys basketball team at Academy and said this is the best team they've had in his tenure.

"We can play 10 guys," Holt said. "So, we always have a fresh team out there."

Even with as loaded as Region III may be, Holt is still confident his team can compete with anyone in the region.

And some of the players feel this team is good enough to make a push at the Alamodome in March.

"I think we can be a really good team," Holt said. "We can pretty much go as far as we want, playing together as a team."

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