Lake Country Christian, Nolan Catholic girls come up short in TAPPS state semifinals

The Fort Worth Lake Country Christian girls came out of the gate on fire in their TAPPS Class 4A state basketball semifinal.

But foul trouble and the height advantage of Dallas Christian was just too much in the end as the Eagles bowed out of the tournament with a 56-41 loss to the Chargers on Thursday at Waco University High School.

Dallas Christian (21-8) will play for the 4A title at 11 a.m. on Friday at Robinson High School against Boerne Geneva (29-5). Geneva defeated Corpus Christi Incarnate Word 34-26 in the other semifinal.

“We knew going in that they were longer than us,” said Lake Country coach Rachel James. “They’ve got a lot of arms and a lot of legs and so that probably really was kind of the deciding factor because I think kid for kid that we’re deeper.”

It was a game of runs early with Lake Country (30-7) jumping out to a quick 7-4 lead. Courtlyn Middlebrook buried a three-pointer to start the scoring for the Eagles then added a pair of free throws in front of a bucket by Paige Sides.

But the Chargers rallied behind Kennedy Chappell and Caitlynn Jordan.

Dallas Christian went on a 13-2 run with Chappell pouring in nine during the spree. The senior drained a three-pointer from five feet beyond the arc to open the second quarter, to help give the Chargers a 17-9 lead with 7:28 left in the half.

Middlebrook tossed in nine more on a 14-0 run by the Eagles to go up 23-17 at the 3:53 mark of the second quarter. Lake Country built its biggest lead at 27-20 on a put back by Tatum Helmer with 2:34 left before the intermission.

Chappell, who led all scorers with 21 points, scored eight points in the final 2:57 of the first half, to give Dallas Christian a 31-29 lead at the break.

The Eagles were hampered late in the second quarter and after when Middlebrook and Avery Sweeney, Lake Country’s leading scorers, both picked up three first-half fouls. Both eventually fouled out with Middlebrook scoring 16 points, all in the first half, and Sweeney chipping in nine.

James pointed out that all nine of her kids have played extensively and in pressure situations and played well, but she had never had her key players in that kind of foul trouble early in a game all season.

“Having said that, it’s my heavy minute kids that got into a little bit of foul trouble and that makes a difference, absolutely,” James said. “Courtlyn ended up fouling out, but she was hot early and then we couldn’t quite ever find it in the second half for her.”

Jordan sat the entire second quarter for Dallas Christian with three fouls, but dominated the game after halftime. The senior post scored 13 of her 15 points in the final two quarters and dominated the boards along with Jacquelynn Schlegel.

Schlegel had 12 points on the night for the Chargers.

“I’ve got nine kids that can step up and play, but at the end they got some rebounds,” said James. “Even though we had them boxed out most of the time they were able to get those boards just because of their height and their length.”

Dallas Christian took its biggest lead, 17 points, with 59 seconds left on a free throw by Jordan.

“This group of girls...I’ve got a bunch of kids that started out in cross country together as a unit and they had a goal that they were going to be in shape and they were going to be quick,” said James. “Every day they came to practice and did everything that we asked and more. One to nine I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.”

Nolan Catholic girls can’t keep pace with district foe Plano John Paul II

The Fort Worth Nolan Catholic girls basketball team has lived and died by the three pointer all season long.

On Thursday night the Vikings just couldn’t get shots to fall their way as District 1-6A rival Plano John Paul II blitzed Nolan 81-38 in a TAPPS Class 6A state semifinal at Waco University High School.

“That’s how we’ve played all year and that’s what has got us here so we had to stick with it,” said Nolan Catholic coach Josh Blok. “They have a great starting five and they shoot the ball really well, like tonight. We threw multiple defenses at them, but they couldn’t miss so I think that as aggressive as they are on the boards and the way they shoot the ball it’s tough.”

Nolan (26-12) shot 30% from the floor making 12 of 40 shots. The Vikings attempted 30 three-point shots, but only managed to make nine of them.

In contrast, the Cardinals shot a whopping 60% from the floor hitting 26 of 39 two-point shots (67%) and seven of 16 three pointers (44%). John Paul was also eight of nine from the foul line (89%) to Nolan’s five of 10.

Nolan point guard and senior leader Odessa Ozuna led the Vikings with 18 points, all on threes. Isabella Steele had three threes and finished with 10 points for Nolan.

“It really been in the making for two years since she was a sophomore,” said Blok on Ozuna, his star guard. “I had a talk with her because she was a little shy her first two years. I told her that I was giving her permission to take over this team.

“I gave her the keys and she ran with it. She’s such a great leader. All the girls that are juniors now were freshmen at the time and she was just very open to them and helping them develop.

“They just love being around her. In two years the development of this team, with a lot of those girls just having played junior varsity, has been really remarkable to see, but it’s from the leadership of my seniors, Ozuna and Yarely Castillo.”

The Cardinals had three players finish in double-digit scoring. Lydia Cooke-Wiggins led all scorers with 23 points. Taylor Haggan and Clara Paynter finished with 16 and 12 points respectively.

Remarkably the top four seeds out of District 1-6A all made it to the final four. No. 1 John Paul II (32-4) will advance to the title game and face the No. 2 seed Dallas Bishop Lynch (27-10) at 4 p.m. on Friday at Robinson High School. Bishop Lynch defeated 4th seeded Dallas Parish Episcopal 67-44 in the second semifinal.

“John Paul is a good team and I can’t take anything away from them,” said Blok, whose Vikings lost to John Paul by nine and 31 points during district play. “Tonight doesn’t define us and doesn’t define the season that we’ve had. I’m just really proud of them.

“They worked really hard to get to this point, but it just wasn’t our night.”