New Caney advances after 15-year wait
MAGNOLIA — When was the last time the New Caney girls basketball team reached the second round of the playoffs? The current group of Lady Eagles were toddlers or younger, perhaps just picking up a toy basketball for the first time.
On Tuesday night, New Caney reached the area round for the first time in 15 years, a big leap for a program that has steadily been on the rise in recent years.
Locked in a close game with A&M Consolidated at the break, New Caney pulled away after halftime for a 58-39 victory in the Region III-5A bi-district round at Magnolia High School.
New Caney (27-7), winner of 16 of its last 17 games, will face stateranked Cedar Park 8 p.m. Friday at Hearne High School.
Advancing to the second round meant a lot of things for senior Abigail Lynch.
“It means us coming together as a team, as a program and just connecting and making history together,” she said.
It’s coach Tricia Mize’s sixth year at the helm and twice in that span —2017 and 2018 — the Lady Eagles made the playoffs but were eliminated quickly. Not this time.
“If this team comes playing the way they are capable of, I knew we would get it,” Mize said. “The main thing was handling the pressure. Keep your composure. I think that finally when we got the nerves shaken out of us a little bit in the first half, once we settled into our game, it was adrenaline. I just can’t say enough about their teamwork.”
New Caney, the secondplace team in District 20-5A, led 16-6 after the first quarter against an A&M Consolidated team (23-11) making its first playoff appearance since 2016.
The Lady Eagles stumbled a bit in the second quarter with just one field goal made and four points scored. But they held the third-place squad from District 19-5A in check enough to lead 20-16 at the break.
“We talked about them outscoring us in the second quarter,” Mize said of her halftime talk. “I think we were tired and needed to catch our wind a little bit. Most of all we just needed to regroup.”
Lynch said the team was still ahead, so they wanted to maintain that lead and extend it.
“We were up so we talked about not settling and we just had to keep taking it to them,” Lynch said. “Keeping our composure was one thing and just taking it possession by possession defense and offensem and I think we did a really good job of that.”
They succeeded. Junior Tori Garza paced the Lady Eagles with nine of her team-high 18 points in the third quarter. Junior Micha Mize hit a big 3-pointer, and Lynch kept attacking the basket. By the end of the third quarter, New Caney outscored Consolidated 21-8 and led 41-24.
“They definitely feed off that,” coach Mize said of Garza getting the offense on track. “My ‘big three’ with Tori, Abby and Micha — when they are on, I’ll put us against anybody.”
Lynch totaled 16 points while Mize had 15.
Lynch has been on varsity since her sophomore year. She was a first-team All-Montgomery County selection as a junior after averaging 16 points and 5 rebounds. But the Lady Eagles missed out on the playoffs, making this year even more important.
“It’s my senior year, of course I want to go to the playoffs,” Lynch said.” I know for my team, it did, too. A bunch of them did AAU and extra practices. We were really, really motivated.”
ATASCOCITA 52 WEST BROOK 34
Kyleigh McGuire scored 15 points as Atascocita defeated Beaumont West Brook in the bi-district playoffs at the Barbers Hill Field House.
Atascocita (32-5) advances to the area round to play Pearland at 7:30 p.m. Friday at La Porte High School.
“We knew coming into the playoffs that it’s a different game,” McGuire said. “Everyone is gunning for everyone else. Everybody wants that spot to get to state, so we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
The Lady Eagles were helped by their senior core of Dede Davis and Elyssa Coleman. Davis finished with 13 points and Coleman added 10.
West Brook finished 21-10.
CY-FAIR 66, WESTSIDE 63
Cy-Fair got a buzzerbeating bucket from Paige Gerold to sink Westside at Delmar Field House.
It’s the first playoff win for Cy-Fair — one of the area’s traditional powers — since 2017. Westside reached the regional final last season.
TOMPKINS 57, TRAVIS 40
Tompkins cruised to its first playoff win since the 2015-16 season by beating Travis at the Merrell Center.
The Lady Falcons are one of six ranked Class 6A teams from the Houston area. They are ranked 22nd in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
The bi-district win sets up a meeting with Cy-Fair in the area round.