Lady Tigers bow out to Whitehouse
LONGVIEW, Texas — Texas High had more shot opportunities, but the ball didn’t fall for the Lady Tigers against Whitehouse.
The Lady Wildcats grabbed the momentum early in the second half and never relinquished it, eliminating THS from the Class 5A girls basketball playoffs with a 45-32 loss.
Whitehouse (17-14) advances to play Red Oak in the area round later this week. Texas High’s season ends at 16-11.
The Tigers shot 20 percent on 11-of-56 field goals, held a 42-37 advantage in rebounds and committed 28 turnovers.
Whitehouse had 32 turnovers and shot 42 percent on 17-of-41 shots. It was 11-of-19 in the second half.
“The shots didn’t fall for us, and turnovers hurt us,” THS coach Shonda Wilson said. “They had just as many as we did, but they converted theirs into points and we didn’t take advantage of theirs. When it turns out like that, it makes it hard to win. The girls played hard, but it didn’t bounce our way.”
The Wildcats came out of the half with a hot hand, hitting 3 of their first 5 shots, including a pair of 3s, to grab a 26-18 lead with 3:55 left in the third.
Just 1:11 later, Whitehouse held a double-digit lead (3020), and the Tigers trailed 32-23 entering the fourth.
Texas High scored four straight points to cut the deficit to five (32-27), but the Wildcats answered with a 4-point run to go up nine, again, with 4:28 left to play. A fast-break layup made it 38-27 with 4:03 remaining.
The rally turned into a 13-1 streak to build an insurmountable lead of 45-28 with 1:44 left.
Susie Moran scored 18 points for Whitehouse and also pulled down eight rebounds.
Jalyn Golette led the Tigers with eight points, Delana Augustus had seven and Ashanti Northcross six. Golette and Anasia Wilcox had seven rebounds each, and Northcross had six boards.
Defense dictated the first half, as the teams combined on 12-of-51 shooting and 24 turnovers before intermission, when the score was knotted at 16.
The Wildcats held a slight 7-4 lead after the first quarter and appeared ready to build a marginal lead after Maddie Herrington drained a 3-pointer for Whitehouse 43 seconds into the second to give it a 10-4 lead.
The Tigers scored the next three and made that a 6-2 run on Braveon Hunt’s trey with 3:00 left in the second. Texas High closed the half on a 6-2 run to get the score even heading into halftime.
The Wildcats shot 27 percent (6-of-22) in the first half, and the Tigers shot 21 percent (6-of-29). After committing nine turnovers in the first quarter, THS had just one in the second for 10, while Whitehouse had 14 turnovers In the half.