Josh Akpovwa has been making his presence felt for Seven Lakes.

On offense, on defense, on the boards, every part of his game has steadily improved during his senior year, and he has been a focal point of a Spartans team that has run away with first place in District 19-6A.

But his presence was never more felt than it was Tuesday night, as the Spartans center broke a school record by recording 11 bocks while also adding eight points as Seven Lakes beat Cinco Ranch 64-54 to keep the teams perfect district season alive.

“I can't take all the credit because we had a really good gameplan that was going to lead to me getting blocks,” Akpovwa said. “We forced everything baseline as a tam and it just funneled things into me. I was just able to take advantage of it, get some blocks, force some turnovers and get out in transition. It was a really good team defensive performance.”

Akpovwa’s presence in the paint is a difference maker for the Spartans, as his defense makes everything else go. It was felt from early on in the game as it helped Seven Lakes get out in transition, kept the Cougars from getting in a rhythm and made his teammates comfortable knowing they could be aggressive on the defensive end.

“It’s just a credit to him and all the work he’s put in,” said Seven Lakes head coach Shannon Heston. “It just lets our guys play free and with confidence on that end, because he will erase mistakes. It’s just something special when he’s in a zone like that, it makes us a tough team to beat when he plays like that.”

Seven Lakes only led by two after the first quarter after Cinco Ranch trimmed into things but turned that into a five-point lead at halftime and a 10-point lead at the end of the third quarter as they continued to pull away.

A big part of that along with Akmpovwa was A.J. Bates, who finished the game with 23 points as well as a number of assists. Bates, last years district MVP continued to show why he is able to compete with anyone he goes up against in the state.

“We just had to run the offense the right way tonight,” Bates said. ”Our pace is what makes us and we want to be fast, but tonight when we slowed things down and really got into our offense it ran well and we were able to control things. We just came out the right way and we just showed our dominance, that’s what we have to do every game.”

The Spartans have accomplished their first goal of the year, with winning a district title, but are still in search of many more, including going undefeated over the course of the district season. And they aren’t planning to let up with just one game to go before they head into the playoffs.

“It’s been a while since that’s happened for a Seven Lakes team and we want to do that,” Bates said. “We can’t get complacent now, that’s our next goal is to go undefeated in district before we head into playoffs, now we have to go accomplish it.”

Seven Lakes 64, Cinco Ranch 54

Points: (SL) A.J. Bates 23, Brett Norton 13, Nasir Price 11, Josh Akpovwa 8, Hagen Knight 3, Elijah Sparks 3, Tillman Jaramillo 3; (CR) Josh Lennon 20, Prince Jones Bynum 10, Harrison Moore 8, Derek Kollmansberger 5, Drew Joyce 4, Nashir Waters 3, Jake Van Slyke 2, Emmanuel Gregory 2;

Halftime: Seven Lakes 30-25; 3-Pointers: (SL) Jaramillo, Bates, Norton, Knight, Sparks; (CR) Bynum, Kollmansberger; Records: Seven Lakes 30-4, 15-0; Cinco Ranch 20-11, 9-5