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                        Odessa Permian  Amarillo High  Midland High  Amarillo Tascosa  Lubbock Monterey

 

Lubbock Monterey easily defeats CHS girls

In basketball, bigger is usually better.

And no West Texas high school basketball team is bigger than Lubbock Monterey.

With 6-foot-5 junior Haley Schneider and her 6-4 freshman sister Kellyn leading the way, Monterey beat the Central girls 61-23 in a District 2-5A game Saturday afternoon.

Neither lanky sister led Monterey in scoring - that title went to Leesa Jones and her 15 points, including four 3-pointers - but the twin towers were constant game-changers.

They blocked shots, altered shots and pretty much made offensive rebounds nonexistent for the Lady Cats on this day.

Haley scored 10 points and Kellyn added nine.

"You had to make sure you were on them every possession, but if they got it, there's nothing you can really do because of their height," Central's Nailah Jernigan said.

"It was very difficult to even try to simulate that height in practice," said Central head coach Jan Wakefield, who doesn't have a starter taller than 5-9.

"It was hard playing defense when they are a head taller than you," Central's Shay Warren said. "You just try to do the best you can. Apparently they were just a little too tall."

Their real impact was probably felt more when Central had the ball.

"This is the first game we've played here at home when we were so cold (shooting the ball), and I think their height played into that," Wakefield said. "We were so quick to try to get a shot off that our rhythm was off."

Nobody scored more than seven points for Central, and no Lady Cat made more than two shots from the field.

After halftime, Monterey (16-9, 5-4) was just up 24-10, but when Central was out-scored 16-3 in the third quarter, the outcome was no longer in question.

The real question was how Monterey had just a 4-4 district record coming into this game.

"Of the four losses, we've had one by one point, one by two points and one in overtime," said Monterey head coach Jill Schneider. (Yes, she's the mother of Haley and Kellyn, and she's really tall, too.) "We're playing a little better now. Hopefully we'll have a better second half (of district)."

Central (10-14, 3-6) will need a better second half of district play, too, if the Lady Cats hope to climb back into playoff contention and make it to the postseason for the third consecutive year.

"We're just going to have to push ourselves harder," said Central's Luz'Ce Baca, who led Central in scoring with seven points.

"We just have to keep battling," Wakefield said. "These next few games are really important. They are on the road against teams we've beaten before. It will be interesting to see if we've progressed to the point where we can beat them on the road."

Lubbock Monterey 61, Central girls 23