Titans pull away from Warriors in fourth quarter
Originally published January 20, 2012 at 11:15 p.m., updated January 22, 2012 at 2:15 a.m.
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West's Allyson Dlouhy drieves to the basket against East on Friday.
Treka Franklin goes up for a shot against Victoria East on Friday.
Victoria West looked like the playoff team it figures to be, but Victoria East showed its championship mettle.
The Warriors hung around for three quarters before East took over in a 52-41 win on Friday night at the West gym.
"I think we were ready to play, but they came more ready to play," said East guard Danielle Franklin. "We started off slow, but we had a better second half."
The No. 13 Titans (30-2) reached the 30-win mark and maintained sole possession of the District 30-4A lead by improving to 5-0.
The Warriors (17-11, 1-4) gave East a scare, taking a 37-35 lead on a 3-pointer by Sevanah Campos-Reyes with 1:15 left in the third quarter.
But the Titans had the final four points of the quarter and outscored West 15-6 in the fourth quarter.
"I really didn't want to wait for the fourth quarter for that to happen," said East coach Yulonda Wimbish-North. "It was like 'Oh my goodness.' This was a game we couldn't let slip away."
The Warriors showed signs of snapping their three-game losing streak, but were undone at the free throw line.
West converted only 7 of 19 attempts, while East was good on 15 of its 18 tries.
"Making better decisions and of course free throws are always going to kill you if you don't make them," said West coach Sandra Jimenez. "We have to make better decisions in clutch times."
The full-time return of Emily Skipper from a pulled leg muscle helped the Warriors deal with East's full-court pressure.
Skipper's ability to break the press helped set up Mercedes Ellison, who had a team-high 14 points, for open jump shots in the lane.
"I think tonight was a big boost of confidence," Skipper said. "We came out and played as a team and definitely played the best game in district we've played so far."
East was coming off an emotional win over Floresville on Tuesday and had trouble getting into a consistent rhythm.
The Warriors also did a good job on the boards and neutralizing the East post players by getting them into foul trouble.
"We were really flat for whatever reason," Wimbish-North said. "Sometimes when you get really high for a game that happened on Tuesday, you can come out flat for the next game. I can take nothing away from West. They played a great game."
Adelaide Wenzel's layup with 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter put East up to stay.
The Titans held West scoreless for a span of 3:21 of the final quarter while extending their lead from three to 10 points.
"I think our defense picked up and we got steals" Wenzel said. "We started to hold them as tight as we could and we just ran the floor."
Franklin scored 18 points and Wenzel had 15 for the Titans, who remained unbeaten but not completely unbowed.
"The one thing I've always said that's very important to us is defense," Wimbish-North said. "But I don't believe our defense was very good until maybe the fourth quarter.
"We had some spurts where we did well, but overall our rotations and different things, it just wasn't really there. I think we made poor decisions and didn't take care of the basketball."
Comments
BeastSide says...
This game was UGLY...and in part because the refs were terrible, AGAIN. Why is it so hard to find a young man who understands the game, who is willing to run the floor and actually watch what is happening in front of him?
These guys were weak on every level...bad calls in the paint, silly calls away from the ball and just flat missing calls while injecting too much of themselves into the contest. Overall grade: D+
That review comes from a fan of the WINNING team...can't imagine how Coach Jimenez must feel about it.
January 21, 2012 at 1:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
adavidson says...
Before I began reading this article I was looking at the pictures. I was a little baffled as to why all 3 pictures favored the West players when the East won the game. I do not live in Victoria anymore but still keep up with the sports. It seems there is a little bias toward the West female athletics over the East. Is the East not ranked in top 15 in the state rankings and undeafeted in district play? If you look at these pictures it seems the outcome of the game was in favor of the West however this was not the case. The same thing happened in volleyball but this was justified as the West was the better volleyball team. Why is this not the case with the girls basketball? Credit should be given where it is due and earned. The East girls worked hard to be where they are and have the record they have, this should be recognized. They deserve their pictures instead of the losing team.
January 21, 2012 at 10:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ddherring says...
adavidson look at the article and pictures from the boys game as well. Beastside as far as the officiating it was the usual "Horrid"! I don't know how or why these same group of guys continue to attempt to call basketball, I sat besides two scouts from Houston Baptist at the game and they where astounded at the poor job the officials were doing. Its gotten to the point where you can't even enjoy the games due to the officials constantly calling or missing calls. I believe the worse call of the night was the call they made against Kenya Griffin, two west players were going for a rebound and one knocked the other one down, ref blows the whistle and calls a foul on a player who was 3ft away from the play!
January 21, 2012 at 6:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )