Cy Creek focused, no matter the location
UIL changes mean strange venues for state semifinals amid pandemic
Coach Jennifer Alexander’s Cypress Creek team isn’t concerned about the lack of state tournament atmosphere in Saturday’s semifinal against Converse Judson.
The Region III and Region IV champions are playing at 3 p.m. Saturday at Goliad High School, a neutral site some 90 miles southeast of the Alamodome, where the state semifinals and finals usually take place in the same weekend.
COVID-19’s impact led the University Interscholastic League to only reserve the state title games for the Alamodome this year. The girls basketball finals are Wednesday and Thursday.
A few other state semifinalists also were creative in finding neutral sites for this playoff round. Class 3A teams Brownfield and Fairfield and 4A teams Dallas Pinkston and Canyon are playing at Angelo State University. Houston’s Delmar Fieldhouse is busy Saturday with 3A’s Bishop and Fairfield, 4A’s Hardin-Jefferson and Boerne and 5A’s Beaumont United and Cedar Park playing there.
Locale matters less than lifting the biggest trophy available, though.
Cy Creek is in a third state tournament in four years. It has won 72 of its last 73 games and is undefeated (31-0) heading into a state semifinal for the second straight year. The Cougars are looking for a second consecutive berth in a state title game.
After Tuesday’s regional championship win over Shadow Creek, Cy Creek’s All-American backcourt matter-of-factly shared words about winning the region yet again.
“It just feels like we need to get this done,” said senior guard Rori Harmon of the bigger goal still at stake.
“We can’t get too excited because we’re not done yet,” said senior guard Kyndall Hunter, staying evenkeeled until the job is done.
Judson could identify, even if 2019 was the year the Rockets won what Cy Creek is trying to attain. This is Judson’s fifth straight trip to the state tournament, with 2019 being the lone year out of the previous trips to end with a state championship.
Harmon and Hunter, both Texas signees, get most of the attention, but Cy Creek has other stars, too.
Senior center Taylor Jackson, for one, is key and has been through the program’s close calls of winning a state championship.
Alexander cites Jackson’s growth offensively — she surpassed 1,000 points this season — to match her ever-present defensive prowess in the paint.
“Taylor is a wonderful kid,” Alexander said. “She’s awesome. She’s kind of like the mother on the team. She’s kind of that mother hen, and you know, she kind of plays that way on the court, too. She kind of holds it down in the middle.”
Aside from the star backcourt, defense and depth drives Cy Creek.
The Cougars constantly crashed boards and disrupted passing lanes in a regional title game where they rebuffed Shadow Creek’s third-quarter comeback attempt en route to a 61-50 win.
Every player has a role on this team and fits it perfectly.
“That’s really the key to being successful,” Alexander said. “Every kid wants to be the playmaker. They want to, but when you have a team full of kids that accept their role for the cause of the team, I think that’s what we’re seeing here with this group.”
More history is at stake for Cy Creek with a win Saturday.
No Houston-area girls basketball team has finished the season as undefeated state champions. The Cougars were close last year, of course, with the season’s only loss coming against Duncanville in the state title game.
And it won’t be Duncanville that Judson or Cy Creek must go through in the title game this year, not that the alternative is any easier.
DeSoto defeated defending state champion Duncanville 52-39 to win Region II last week. DeSoto meets South Grand Prairie in the other state semifinal at 4 p.m. Saturday at Prosper High School.