Mustangs find their happy place
Richards, team all smiles after they earn their first trip to state
KATY — The pictures, the net-cutting, the championship trophy — Cypress Ranch soaked in every second of a historic celebration.
Nobody grinned bigger throughout than Didi Richards.
The Baylor-bound guard struggled with foul trouble, but she has at least one game left in her high school career after a 59-56 victory over Clear Springs in the Class 6A Region III final Saturday at the Merrell Center.
“Anybody who knows me knows I love taking pictures, so this is the part I look forward to the most,” Richards said, still smiling.
“This is really exciting, and I’m happy I get to do it with my teammates.”
The fourth-ranked Mustangs (31-6) are heading to the UIL state tournament for the first time after surviving No. 2 Clear Springs (32-4), which fell in the regional final for the second consecutive season.
They join No. 1 Duncanville, the reigning state champion; No. 3 Pflugerville and No. 11 Converse Judson in the 6A girls state tournament, which is March 2-4 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
“It’s almost surreal because I’ve never been as a coach either … and this is what our goal has been all year long,” Cy Ranch coach Tresa Martin-Hornsby said.
“We’re not satisfied with just making it — we’re going there to win it.”
They won this one despite a rough outing for Richards, who picked up her fourth foul with 3:53 left in the first half, then watched the rest of the second quarter and the entire third from the bench.
She finished with 12 points and six rebounds.
“It was hard, but I’m happy that my team was able to pull it out, and be ahead at halftime, because that was the biggest thing we’ve been saying since we realized we were going to play Clear Springs,” Richards said.
“We needed to be up every quarter, and we did it.”
Cy Ranch led 17-16 after the first quarter and 39-32 at halftime, taking its biggest lead to that point with Richards out.
Springs led 32-31 with 1:20 left in the first half, then Ranch closed on an 8-0 run, with free throws by Jala Buster and Shadiya Thomas, a Buster layup, and Ariana Whitfield’s jumper with five seconds left.
But the Mustangs could only do so much without their big girl on the floor.
They pushed the lead to 46-36 in the third, then the Chargers took over, ending the quarter with a 7-0 run that carried into the start of the fourth, eventually hitting 13-0 for a 49-46 lead with 5:19 left.
Cy Ranch went scoreless for 7:32 during the stretch.
Richards was ready to get back in late in the third – and Hornsby was ready, too – but she stayed out until the fourth.
“Coach Hornsby kept grabbing me, like she wanted to put me in, but (assistant) coach (Stacey) Stroman was like, ‘No, no, no, we can’t put her in yet,’” Richards said. “So it was really hard to sit there and watch, knowing I could help the team by rebounding or something if I’m not making (shots).”
She supplied enough help down the stretch.
Dymond Gladney (15 points) gave Clear Springs a 56-54 lead with 1:28 remaining.
Then Richards hit two clutch free throws to tie the game, blocked a shot at the other end, grabbed the rebound and outletted to Thomas – a freshman – for the game-winning layup with 26 ticks left.
Buster finished with 17 points, and Whitfield added 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Cy Ranch shot 40 percent from the field (17-of46) and hit 24 of 32 free throws.
Clear Springs shot 32.8 percent from the field (19of-58) and 81.3 percent at the free-throw line (13-of16).
Sierra Cheatham had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Chargers.
“Last year, they were in this tournament, they were in this game, and they lost to North Shore, so they had something to come back and prove,” Martin-Hornsby said. “So they were on a mission and we knew that, and we knew we had to make some adjustments and take care of business.”