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Plano East district streak snapped
By TC Fleming, Staff Writer
Watch VideoUntil Tuesday night, no team in District 9-5A had proved themselves better on the basketball court than Plano East.
After Tuesday night, Lake Highlands can proudly say they bested the Lady Panthers in East’s own gym. The Lady Wildcats won, 60-57, thanks to a level of hustle, grit, and scrap the Lady Panthers did not appear ready for.
“[Lake Highlands is a] tough competitor,” said LaGwenna Mingilton, East head coach. “[They’re] very aggressive on defense. We knew they were going to be physical, like when we played them the first time.”
Feeling the game quickly becoming out of hand, the Lady Panthers took over to force a close contest. Senior guard Simone Bridges popped in a shot from behind the three-point line before junior guard Porsha Smith did the same.
After a quick score by Lake Highlands’ guard Jasmine Wright, Bridges again dropped in three, this time by way of an inside score that drew the foul. Bridges followed that up by intercepting a pass and taking it home.
Not done yet, Bridges came free on a fast break, put the ball in the bucket and again drew a free-throw opportunity she made good on. Suddenly, the eight-point difference had become a margin of one, thanks largely to 11 points by Simone Bridges in the span of three minutes.
Later, junior forward Joselyn Pugh went to the line for East, missed her first shot and sunk her second to give the Lady Panthers their first lead, 39-38, since the earliest moments of the game with time dwindling in the third. Senior guard Nicole Johnson put in another point from the charity stripe, but Lake Highlands reasserted themselves after that.
After closing the third with a free throw, Wright, who led all scorers with 25 points, opened scoring in the fourth as well, hitting on a long two-point shot. Lady Wildcats forward Markita Stokes further fueled the run with two free throws. Not done, Stokes snatched an East pass from the air, dished it to Wright, and the Lady Wildcats had two more points to lead, 45-40 after the seven-point run.
Bridges, who led East with 21 points, went to the line and left with two points, but post player Hannah Wedding answered, thanks in part to Wright’s assist, as the game sat at 47-42. The teams traded scores for a bit when, at 51-43, East went on a tear, notching eight of the next 10 points. Johnson scored five of her 13 points on a three-point shot and two foul shots to pull East within two at 53-51.
Lake Highlands made things a bit more comfortable with four points in a row, but Johnson answered with a three-point shot. Back and forth it went until East senior point guard Jheryn Lewis took the inbounds pass under the basket and put it in to close the game to 59-57.
The tying score, however, never came.
That East was even within three at the end seemed an unlikely finish given the early going. Throughout the night Lake Highlands benefited from easy points generated by their tenacity.
When there was a sloppy pass to be picked, a loose ball to be fought for or a board to be pulled down, the Lady Wildcats were usually there. And in the start of the game, that led to a sizable lead for Lake Highlands. After the first quarter, they were up 18-9. The Lady Wildcats opened the second quarter similarly and led by as many as 12.
“I think the girls had a lot of confidence that they could come back in the second half,” Mingilton said. “Unfortunately, that’s kind of how we’ve been playing all year. We relax in the first half then turn it on in the second; but when you’re coming back from a big deficit, it makes it a lot harder. Time ran out for us and we came up a bit short.”
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