CHRIS JENNINGS / HERALD DEMOCRAT
Sherman’s Tayler Whittington battles West Mesquite’s Kierra Davis Monday in a Class 4A Region II quarterfinal game at Plano. West Mesquite eliminated the Lady Cats, 53-38.
PLANO — In both of their previous two games, Sherman’s girls were able to reach deep down and overcome a fourth-quarter deficit to advance to the Class 4A Region II quarterfinals.
This time, though, West Mesquite’s defense was too strong to let any sort of second-half surge materialize for the Lady Bearcats.
A strong first quarter by Sherman quickly vanished as the Lady Wranglers closed the first half on a 13-2 run to take a seven-point lead into halftime, and the curtain closed on a landmark season for the Lady Cats in a 53-38 loss on Monday night at Plano Senior High School.
“I told the kids to make sure to keep their heads up, because they had a wonderful season,” head coach Monticee Williams said. “I wouldn’t change anything. I would take these kids again in a heartbeat and go on this fantastic run we’ve gone on. Everything the kids accomplished this year is good.”
While the Lady Cats (26-7) outrebounded West Mesquite 44-40, the difference in the game was in a large turnover differential, with Sherman committing 22 and the Lady Wranglers only 13. Many of Sherman’s turnovers were unforced errors.
“I knew that one of the strengths we’d have would be rebounding,” Williams said. “We had a size advantage over most of their guards. I just don’t think we were able to score. In a game like this, when you’re close to getting to the regionals, every possession counts.”
Tayler Whittington, one of four seniors, finished the evening with nine rebounds, and junior Ashley Crockett grabbed eight.
West Mesquite’s strategy was to neutralize senior Jada Bennett, and the Lady Wranglers limited her to nine points and five rebounds.
“You’ve got to put more than one person on her,” West Mesquite coach Darrin Samuels said. “She’s a true Division I player. She can score different kinds of ways, so basically we had to put a little zone on her. It almost backfired because you’re leaving someone open, and (sophomore Jayzhia Softly) took advantage of that and scored a bunch in the first half.”
Sherman got a huge scoring spark off the bench once again from Softly, who led the team with 13 points, eight of them in the first quarter as the Lady Cats led by as many as eight points in the first seven minutes on a Brittani Thomas jumper. West Mesquite, after making its first two baskets for a quick 4-0 lead, missed 14 shots in a row in that interval.
“They’re an impressive team,” Samuels said. “They’ve got a lot of talent. I thought they had a great season just looking at them on tape. You can be intimidated when you see all those long, athletic girls and shooters to go with them.”
But in the second quarter, the Lady Wranglers came storming back as the Lady Cats got caught up in West Mesquite’s uptempo game.
Sherman led 21-17 after Softly’s coast-to-coast layup off a rebound on the other end midway through the second. West Mesquite (30-7) then got a layup and two free throws to tie the game, and Sha’Georgia Williams’ deep 3-pointer from the left wing gave the Lady Wranglers the lead at 24-21.
Two Crockett free throws interrupted the run, but West Mesquite’s Regina Garrett scored the final three buckets of the half to give her team a 30-23 halftime lead.
“They got on a little run and got a couple of easy layups,” Williams said. “Our press didn’t work. We left the back end open a lot. In the second quarter they looked to attack and penetrate more and they got down the middle of the lane a lot.”
In the second half, the Lady Wranglers turned to six-foot junior Claudia Price, who scored nine of her 11 points after the break. Bennett’s basket made it a 35-27 game late in the third, but Price answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Sherman never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Lady Cats will graduate Bennett and Whittington, who will both move on to play Division I sports, as well as Cailey Sherrill and Matiyah Brown. But Williams has a solid nucleus of seven returning varsity players.
“We’ll have a lot of shoes to fill, but we have a lot of young kids too,” Williams said. “Every person off the bench is a junior or sophomore except for Matiyah. I think the younger kids got invaluable experience this year, and that’s what it’s going to take.”
