Tigers power to win
TYLER, Texas—Texas High made halftime adjustments and won the second half by 15 points, eliminating Cleburne from the girls basketball playoffs.
The Lady Tigers shot 48 percent in the second half (14 of 29) and finished with a 33 percent field goal percentage in a tooth-andnail battle, outlasting the Lady Yellowjackets during a 58-51 win in the 5A area game Friday at Wagstaff Gymnasium on the campus of Tyler Junior College.
Texas High (26-7) advances to next week’s regional quarterfinals to face North Forney, which beat Lufkin 54-48 Friday.
THS won the battle on the glass, 56-44, and had a narrow 20-17 advantage in forced turnovers.
Cleburne (28-9) finished with a 26 percent shooting percentage on 13-of-51 shooting. Texas High made 24 of 73 field goals.
“We finally got some shots to fall for us, and we decided to go to a half-court defense,” Texas High coach Shonda Wilson said. “That worked well for us, and it started getting some things going for us. We played more like we’re capable of in the second half.”
The Yellowjackets stayed in the game by out-scoring THS by 15 from the foul line, making 20 of 32 free throws. Texas High was 5 of 12 from the stripe.
The Tigers clawed their way back into the game in the third quarter, going on a 20-13 run during the period.
Back-to-back 3s by Antonia Porter and Kerrighan Dunn cut Texas High’s deficit to 38-36 with 3:58 left in the third, and the Tigers answered a 5-point streak by closing the quarter on a 6-0 run.
Trailing by one (43-42) to start the fourth, Texas High scored the first 5 points and went ahead 54-45 with 2:42 left after a 6-0 streak.
Cleburne missed its first eight shots from the floor in the fourth quarter, but Haley Jones ended that when she hit a layup-and-1 with 1:50 remaining to make it 56-50 THS.
The rest of the game was settled at the charity stripe.
Dunn led all scorers with 21 points, and Porter scored 12 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers built a 22-16 lead midway through the second, but the Yellowjackets closed the first half on a 14-0 run over the last 3:35 to take a 30-22 advantage into the locker rooms at intermission.
Each team had 10 turnovers in the first half, but Texas High had just a 23 percent field goal percentage on 10-of-44 shooting. The Tigers used a 10-point rally during the second quarter to take a 22-16 lead with 3:47 left in the half.
Cleburne went down and Caitlyn Cron drained the first of her two 3-pointers in the quarter, sparking the run to send the Yellowjackets to an 8-point lead at halftime.
Cleburne shot 30 percent (8 of 27) from the floor in the first half and adjusted to a box-and-1 defense, from its 5-player zone, after Dunn scored eight points in the second for Texas High.
Instead of a full-court press, THS used a half-court trap and man-to-man, defensively, to spark the comeback.
“I’m very proud of the girls; they never stopped playing,” Wilson said. “They never shut down. They wanted to win and knew they were going to have to go get it because no one was going to give it to them. And that’s what they did.”
Kiasyia Morrison contributed 12 points for the Tigers and also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Dunn added eight boards.
Cron led the Jackets with 14 points, and Jayla Johnson and Haley Jones added 13 points each, Jones finishing with a double-double with 10 rebounds.