Ladycats fend off Granbury in regular season finale
Feb. 6—ALEDO — The Aledo Lady Bearcats hosted the Granbury Lady Pirates in a critical district contest Tuesday night as Aledo celebrated its Senior Night. The team celebrated the careers of its two seniors, Natalie Anderson and Caroline Browning.
"I'm not the kind of person to want to have the day to myself in the spotlight, so it was kind of overwhelming but I also enjoyed seeing all the people come to support me," said Browning, who also belted the national anthem before the game tipped off. "Natalie (Anderson) and I have been playing together since third grade, so we just immediately bonded after she came from volleyball. We know each other pretty well since we've played together for so long, so getting to lead together has been really fun this year."
In the end, Aledo emerged from the game with a 52-35 victory after fending off a late surge from the visitors, using strong defense and timely offense to secure the win and second place in District 5-5A.
"It was important and you never know what it's going to be like on Senior Night — lots of emotions for everybody — because both of these seniors have done a great job with leadership," Ladycats head coach Nikki Hyles said. "The team bond that these girls have, the younger kids really want to see them succeed, so they did a good job even though it is hard to get comfortable with Granbury, who kept sticking with us."
Aledo jumped out of the gates fast and raced to an 11-4 lead after sophomore guard Elizabeth Griffin drained a 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the first quarter. The Ladycats were poised to finish off the frame on a closing 6-0 run until Granbury's halfcourt heave at the buzzer kissed off the glass and fell through the hoop, which meant Aledo had to settle for a 17-7 advantage.
Browning opened up scoring in the second quarter with a driving layup at the 6:35 mark and Anderson converted a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound to extend the lead to 21-9 with 6:02 remaining before halftime. Later in the quarter, junior post Kinley Elms, who provided a strong presence down low on offense and defense, made a layup with three minutes left to push the lead to 27-15. The Ladycats eventually entered the locker room at the half with a 29-18 advantage as Granbury beat the buzzer again from 3-point territory.
Griffin kept Aledo rolling with a long ball at the 3:31 mark of the third quarter to extend Aledo's lead to 34-19, but the Lady Pirates forced the issue by virtue of using a 7-2 closing run that trimmed the Ladycats' lead to 36-28 entering the fourth.
Granbury stayed hot in the final frame of regulation, hitting a triple to pull within 36-31 in the opening moments of the fourth. However, Griffin came back with an and-one jumper plus the foul shot that increased the lead to 39-31 with 7:17 left. After that, Elms and Brown combined to score the next three buckets to cap off the decisive 9-0 run and gave the home team breathing room at 45-31 with 4:30 left.
"We played a little bit of man but mostly stayed in a zone," Hyles said. "We had to communicate and know where their shooters were, and we struggled at times with that, but their rotations really started to pick up and we finished the game strong."
Elms was the leading scorer with a game-high 18 points on 72 percent shooting while Griffin, who went two-for-five from deep, scored 11. Brown chipped in with eight points to go with six rebounds, including four offensive boards. Anderson netted seven points and freshman guard Brooklyn Dempsey scored four.
The Ladycats (27-9, 10-2) finished the season as the second-place finishers of District 5-5A and will compete in the bi-district round of postseason play with details to be announced.
