PLAYOFFS PREVIEW

Pleasant Grove vs. Tyler Chapel Hill

Pleasant Grove starts its playoff run tonight against Tyler Chapel Hill.

The Lady Hawks (263, 8-0) are the No. 1 seed in District 15-4A, and the Lady Bulldogs are the No. 4 seed in District 16-4A. Pleasant Grove will be the home team.

The teams battle in a 4A bi-district game at 6 p.m. in Lobo Coliseum at Longview High School.

“I think that our defense has improved, and our shots are starting to fall more,” Hawks head coach Marsha Cowling said. “We have spent a lot of time shooting. The more that we have played through district, the better the team has gotten in playing with each other. They are clicking right now, which is good because now is the best time for everything to come together.”

Shanequa Henry, who led PG in scoring during the regular season, Ashanti Levingston, Keshawn Davis, Maiya Ware and Asia Lloyd will start. Each starter is a junior.

“Tyler Chapel Hill is a lot like some teams in our district,” Cowling said. “They play a lot of half-court man-to-man defense. They have a couple of good outside shooters.”

Noni Hilley, Kayla Cooks, Trinitee Whitaker, Phoebe Robertson and Alex Norton round out the Hawks’ roster.

“We want to play our style of controlled, aggressive play,” Cowling said. “We want to control the tempo of the defense and cause turnovers. I think we will be able to fast break on them, and we are going to have to rebound well.”

The winner takes on either Van or Crandall in the area round later this week.