Abilene Cooper   Ballinger   Killeen Tournament   Odessa High  Odessa Permian  Midland Greenwood Tournament
Midland Lee  Lubbock Coronado  Midland Greenwood  *Amarillo High  Lubbock High  Copperas Cove Tournament
Amarillo Tascosa  Midland High  Lubbock Monterey  Odessa High  Lubbock High  Midland Lee  Lubbock Coronado
                        Odessa Permian  Amarillo High  Midland High  Amarillo Tascosa  Lubbock Monterey

Basketball: Central can't match Sandies' momentum

The Central High School Lady Cats basketball team returned home Saturday after almost an entire month of playing on the road to face the District 2-5A leading Amarillo High Lady Sandies.

The Lady Cats had a rough time re-introducing themselves to their own baskets, scoring just 10 second-half points and watching an 11-point lead slip away as the Sandies overcame a dismal first half and remained unbeaten in district play with a 33-23 win.

Both teams started cold before the Lady Cats broke the scoring drought with a bucket at the 5:25 point of the first quarter for a 2-0 lead. Moments later, they upped the lead to 4-0, and had they not scored again in the first half, they would have gone to the locker room tied as the Central zone defense forced the Sandies to settle for outside shots and lay more bricks than a team of masons.

"We packed in our zone to force them to shoot it from the outside and also to give us better positioning for rebounding," Lady Cats coach Jan Wakefield said.

The strategy worked, and Central led 9-4 after one quarter with Amarillo High hitting just one basket while getting its other two points from the free-throw line.

It got worse, much worse, for the Sandies as they failed to log a single point in the second quarter and went over 10 minutes of the first half without scoring.

Inside, senior Nailah Jernigan and freshman Katie Wohleking owned the paint and the Sandies repeatedly went one-and-out on their offensive end.

"We relied too much on the three-point shot early," Sandies coach Jeff Williams said. "And we didn't block out at all. We learned a lesson that you cannot just show up and expect to win; you have to come in ready to go to work."

The second quarter saw both teams struggle offensively, but the Lady Cats did manage a pair of baskets for their 13-3 halftime lead.

Out of the break, Central increased its lead to 11 points as Jernigan scored off the inbounds play that started the third quarter.

But the Sandies were about to change things around.

Brette McDonald nailed a 3-pointer. Seconds later, Kela Smith scored in the paint and Libby Smith quickly followed with another long-range shot for a quick 8-0 run that saw the lead rapidly drop to three points.

Another Jernigan bucket inside pushed it back to four points, but when the senior drew her fourth foul at the 2:17 mark Caitlan Wallace's free throw had it to three.

With Jernigan on the bench, Amarillo had the momentum and Smith gave them the lead with a three-point play in the first seconds of the fourth quarter. While she sat a three-point lead had become a three-point deficit.

"She's our go-to player," Wakefield said. "That really hurt us as she is such a good leader on the floor, and we really need her out there."

Central would not regain the lead as the Sandies pushed it to an 11-point advantage of their own with 3:16 to play. Amarillo hit 11 of 15 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off the Lady Cats.

"We had that cold spell in the third quarter, and we just couldn't knock down anything," Wakefield said. "And their shots started falling.

"We knew it was just a matter of time before they'd hit their shots. We just didn't put them away."

Amarillo 33, Central girls 23