Tyler Legacy’s JP Rainer looks to score against Rockwall on Jan. 28 inside Tyler Legacy Varsity Gymnasium. (Michel Alfaro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Tyler Legacy is heading to the basketball playoffs for the second consecutive year after winning its first district title since 2021.

After a 4-8 November and a 13-12 start to the season that included a 64-57 loss at Rockwall on Jan. 3 to fall to 1-2 in district, the Red Raiders won their final nine games of the regular season to enter the postseason with an overall record of 22-12.

A lot of the early record was due to playing a schedule that included Class 6A No. 6 Duncanville, Class 5A No. 10 Lufkin, then Class 5A No. 1 Dallas WT White and more.

“I think it just gave us a ton of confidence competing against the best,” second-year Tyler Legacy head boys basketball coach Kyle Smith said. “Even though we didn’t win a lot of those games, we were in them and we were able to build off of that. It was about just staying the course and not getting too high or too low.

“It’s a testament to these guys’ maturity and just growing. It’s a process. Last year was a big step for us just to be able to get into the playoffs. I think we learned a lot from that. I think we can lean on that, and then this year, I think we’ve got the pieces to make a run.”

The postseason starts Tuesday for the Red Raiders with a Class 6A Division II bi-district game against North Garland (12-14) at 6 p.m. at Forney High School.

North Garland, also the Raiders, has alternated wins and losses to close the regular season and had a season-high winning streak of two games multiple times.

“They are very athletic and really try to push the pace, Smith said. “Our biggest thing is we’ve got to make sure we don’t get sped up. They’ve got a couple of guys that can really score it and a couple of guards that are really good, so that’ll be a tough challenge.”

North Garland is led by sophomore Juju Minor, who has already reached the 1,000-point scoring mark and has a football offer from Sacramento State.

Legacy has two double-digit scorers — Ja’Corian Oes (16.9) points and Jayden Jones (16.0 points) — among a versatile rotation that includes Zyere Ceasar, Gage Nuckolls, JP Rainer, Josh Hall, Tyler Henry and KJ Cyres.

“I think the versatility and depth we have has been big for us,” Smith said. “We can come at you in a lot of different ways. We’ve got size, we’ve got good guard play, we can throw it inside and we can shoot it. And just them all being on the same page. I think they’ve really grown this last month and a half of the season. Hopefully, we will be able to go out there and continue to play for a while.”

“I feel like we finally started playing more together,” Rainer said. “I feel like once we started passing the ball a lot and everybody’s starting to score, that really helped. And I think our defense is really good now too because we’ve been talking more.”

“I feel like everything just switched after the Allen Tournament,” Oes said. “We just went on a run. After those first two district losses, we just switched it into a new gear. We are moving the ball well, playing as a team, communicating on both ends of the floor and just wanting to win games.”

The winner of Tuesday’s game will advance to face either Killeen Harker Heights or No. 21 Mesquite Horn.