Lady Leopards collide with Canton in 4A playoffs

PITTSBURG, Texas — Liberty-Eylau girls basketball coach Dewaski Davis, who doubles as the school’s athletic director, hopes the Lady Leopards’ luck from the coin flip flows over into the playoffs.

Liberty-Eylau finished in a three-way tie with Sulphur Springs and Paris, all sporting 6-4 District 15-4A records behind champion North Lamar (10-0). On the first coin toss, all three schools had the same side. But on the second toss, the Leopards won to secure the district’s No. 2 seed heading into the Class 4A state playoffs.

“I hope it was a good omen for us, and that it continues in the playoffs,” said coach Davis.

Liberty-Eylau (11-14) opens the bi-district playoffs against Canton (26-7), the third-place finisher from 16-4A, at 6 p.m. today in Pittsburg High School gymnasium. The game will be the first of a scheduled doubleheader. “I’m not sure who is playing the second game,” Davis said.

Both teams are limping into the playoffs with two-game losing streaks. The Leopards lost to Sulphur Springs and Paris, and the Lady Eagles lost to Van (22-2) and Brownsboro (23-7), the top two teams in 16-4A. “They’ve got several teams who have impressive records in their district,” Davis said. “We’ll certainly have to be ready to play.”

Davis feels like the Leopards

are peaking at the right time. “I think we’re an extremely dangerous team right now,” the coach said. “We’re playing together and things are falling into place and I believe we can play with any team right now.” The Leopards starters are expected to be 5-10 senior Myah Hurd, 5-9 senior Ja’Niya Sanders, 5-5 senior Alexandria Threats, 6-2 junior Ja’Kai Ray and 5-9 sophomore Brooklyn Garner.

“We’ll have some players come off the bench who had been contributing to our success, too,” Davis said. “We like to keep fresh players in the game.”

Davis said Hurd is the Leopards’ leading scorer.

“I think she probably averages about 16-17 points a game,” he said. “She’s usually our leading scorer, day-in and day-out.”

If the Leopards win their playoff opener, they’ll likely face Sunnyvale (27-6) in the area round. “I figure Sunnyvale will beat whoever they play in bi-district, and they’re pretty loaded this year,” Davis said. “But again, I like our chances against any team we play. The girls are playing with a lot of confidence and I have a lot of confidence in them.”

Davis said the Leopards aren’t overlooking Canton tonight.

“We’ve got to keep pushing ourselves hard, because anything can happen in the playoffs,” he said. “We’re in the playoffs and now it’s up to us to keep our winning attitude.”