Lady Cardinals see 17-game win streak end
SAN ANTONIO — When Holliday scored the game’s first seven points Thursday afternoon in a Class 3A state semifinal, it didn’t offer a promising result for Columbus at the University Interscholastic League state girls basketball tournament.
In the end, that fast start by the Lady Eagles proved to be more than the Lady Cardinals could overcome in a 59-40 loss at the Alamodome.
And then there was Holliday’s Jalynn Bristow.
The dominating 6-3 senior post connected on 17 of 21 shots from the field in a 35-point, 18-rebound, 4blocked shot effort.
Holliday (33-3) will now meet Fairfield (39-2) for the Class 3A state championship at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Columbus (31-5) saw a 17-game win streak come to an end in its first appearance at the state tournament.
The Lady Cardinals managed just two field goals in the opening half while Holliday rode a 13point effort from Bristow, an Iowa State commit, in the first two quarters.
Columbus head coach Mike Albers knew it would be difficult to recover from the rocky start.
“We scored nine points the first half, and we’d been scoring 60 per game,” Albers said. “We just couldn’t get any shots to fall.
“It was just one of those things, and they made most of their shots.
“Then we played in the second half like we played all year. We caused things to happen.”
Bristow’s effort paved the way to a 21-5 lead after one period and a 29-9 halftime cushion.
“We came out with a bunch of energy all week just to play this game,” Bristow said. “We all rallied together and came out with the win.”
Columbus, playing with the vigor it had hoped would appear in the first half, outscored Holliday, 31-30, in the second half, which caused some concern for the Lady Eagles.
Bristow, though, took charge in the final 16 minutes, making 11 of 13 shots from the field.
“I feel like all of us make adjustments to whatever the other team is throwing at us,” she said.
“When they made their adjustments, we made ours, also.”
In the first half, the Lady Cardinals sank just 2 of 21 attempts from the field while Bristow was 6 of 8 from the floor and pulled down 10 rebounds. Madyson Carter and Allie Tribe accounted for Columbus’ two first-half field goals.
The Lady Cardinals produced a much better effort at the start of the third quarter as Carter nailed a 3-pointer and a layup while Bailey Gustus came up with a steal and layup to trim the lead to 33-18.
Treasure Upson also canned a 3-pointer for Columbus, which eventually cut the deficit to 39-25 heading into the final period.
When Tribe scored inside with seven minutes left in the game, Columbus was within 39-27.
That’s when Bristow asserted herself on both ends of the floor.
She scored 12 of Holliday’s first 14 points in the final period in helping boost the advantage to 4729 with 4:38 to play.
From there, the Lady Eagles, also making their first state appearance, easily held on for the win.
“I’m not sure what you can do to stop (Bristow), and that’s why she’s going where she’s going,” Albers said.
“If she steps out, she’s going to make the 12-foot jumper. When she posted up, we tried different things.
“We tried playing behind her, and then fronting her didn’t work too good for us, either.”
Bristow was the only double-digit scorer for Holliday, which made 26 of 56 shots from the field.
She led a Lady Eagles assault on the boards as Holliday outrebounded Columbus, 47-28.
Karlee Mathis led Columbus with 11 points while Tribe finished with 10.
Holliday head coach Derek Winn was obviously elated his team emerged from the gate quick.
“I thought we came out and played tremendous in the first quarter, scoring 21 points,” he said. “We just kept them off balance, allowing them to shoot 26 percent from the field.”
Holliday now has a tall order in trying to upend talented perennial power Fairfield.
“They’re a great team and put a lot of pressure on you,” Winn said. “As long as we value the basketball and do the fundamental things right, we’ve got a chance to win the championship.”