Chaparral's historic girls basketball playoff train rolled on Friday as the Lady Bobcats defeated the Georgetown Lady Eagles in a hard-fought 45-36 Class 5A area-round battle at Liberty Hill High School.
As the clock wound down, the triumphant Lady Bobcats exploded with joy, doing a chant and dance as they earned another gold ball trophy and extended their season into the third round of the playoffs.
At Marble Falls, the Ellison Lady Eagles fell 46-33 to No. 11 Pflugerville Hendrickson in the second round.
Lady Bobcats head coach Kiara Marshall praised her No. 16-ranked team’s fight against the tough No.20-ranked Georgetown, which finished their season 27-6.
The Bobcats fought for everything they got, taking a 9-6 lead after the first quarter and a 17-13 lead into halftime.
Both teams had no intention of going down without a fight. The Lady Eagles managed to tie the game 21-21 in the third quarter and the two teams exchanged leads.
The Lady Bobcats led 27-24 after three quarters. Their fierce defense produced valuable steals, but also a rash of fouls.
Chaparral's Chazlyn Dettor was a force under the basket throughout the game, fighting for rebounds and second shots. She led her team with 18 points and made six of nine free throws.
Ivy Powell scored seven points and was five of eight from the line.
Jerriyah Baines also came up big when it counted the most. She scored just four points during the first three quarters but scored eight of the team’s 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Her most impressive basket came in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter and seemed like a microcosm of the whole game.
Baines somehow outfought two defenders under the basket, but missed a shot, then again wrestled the ball from the same pair of Lady Eagles and willed a second shot attempt through the hoop to score.
Trinity Brown’s six points and Julissa Weeks’ two points completed the Lady Bobcats' scoring.
Georgetown’s Reese Hoadley led all scorers and accounted for more than half her team’s production with 22 points.
“Those kids are tough,” said Marshall of her Lady Bobcats. “Chaparral kids are tough. We talked a little about David and Goliath. Even though we were the higher seed, you can’t put in the background what Georgetown has done traditionally.
“We knew we were underdogs in this one…They work hard,” she said. “I challenged them all week in practice. If we’re going to win this game, it’s going to be from inside. They cannot outrebound us. My girls responded.”
A week-and-a-half ago, Chaparral secured their District 22-5A title, the two-year-old school’s first for a team sport.
On Monday, it earned the school’s first team playoff victory in a 64-41 first-round win over Magnolia.
The basketball playoffs don’t slow down until the state finals March 9.
For the Lady Bobcats, the next step is a regional quarterfinals matchup Tuesday against Montgomery Lake Creek, which defeated Pflugerville 45-22 on Thursday after barely winning over Shoemaker in the first round.
The third-round game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Caldwell High School.
