Georgetown’s Rhonda Farney and Magnolia West’s Sarah Simmons both have indicated that they are not expecting anything other than a challenging encounter when their teams collide in a Region III-5A area playoff at 7 p.m. Friday in Hearne. Farney and her staff have had the Lady Mustangs (25-7) on their radar of possible playoff opponents for some time and that interest has paid off. Magnolia West, the runner-up in 19-5A, crunched Tomball, 73-38, in its bi-district outing on Tuesday night. “Magnolia West is a well-coached team,” Farney said after watching video and attending the Lady Mustangs’ opening-round victory over the third-place team from 20-5A. They have played an excellent schedule. They start three 6-foot-1 players and they are deep.” Simmons told the Houston Chronicle the following about the 23-10 Lady Eagles, who bested Marble Falls, 52-37, in their bi-district game: “It’s going to be tough,” Simmons said of Georgetown. “I’ve seen them play, and they’re very fundamental, they’re a great-coached team, and we’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game to match up with them.” No bulletin board material there from either side.
The reward for Friday night’s winner will be a Region III quarter final battle on Monday or Tuesday against either 17-5A champion Cedar Park (30-3) or Bryan Rudder, the third-place team from 19-5A. Rudder will take a 26-10 record into the 7pm Friday battle at Cameron Yoe High School. The winner of the regional quarterfinal advances to next weekend’s Region III-5A Tournament at the Aldine ISD’s Campbell Center and the loser packs it in. Both the Lady Timberwolves and Rangers posted close bi-district victories. CP beat Manor, 53-46, and Rudder downed Kingwood Park, 59-53. In some ways it’s been a tough campaign for Magnolia West. On the scoreboard, the Lady Mustangs posted a 13-1 record in 19-5A, but West had to forfeit three of its district wins because of an ineligible player. That allowed College Station to finish ahead of them in the standings with a 12-2 mark. Magnolia West and College Station traded home-court victories — the Cougars won 63-32 in the first meeting and West took a 69-59 victory in the second game. Of the forfeit losses, Simmons told the Houston Chronicle: “I told them (her players) we had two choices,” Simmons said. “We could either fold as a result of what happened or we could just do what we had planned on doing anyway, which was win a bunch of ball games. . . . That kind of set the tone on how we handled it. The other way we handled it was very lovingly, like a family. We were very protective of each other throughout that process.” Farney said that Magnolia West had played a tough schedule. It’s losses also included defeats by state-ranked teams in Manvel, 45-30, and Fort Bend Hightower, 64-49.
The Lady Mustangs have been led by a pair by senior post Hannah Eggleston and junior power forward Kamryn Jones. For the season, Eggleston is averaging 16.1 points and eight rebounds a game, while Jones averages 10.4 points and 5.9 boards a start. Against Tomball, Jones and Eggleston had 20 and 17 points, respectively. Simmons basically called Eggleston a rock that helped keep the team together in its time of trial.
Georgetown, which will be shooting for a stronger overall performance than the one in their win over Marble Falls, is expected to start a lineup of 5-11 senior Jaelyn Knight and 5-9 junior McCall Hampton inside along with an outside trio of 5-7 senior Samari O’Brien, 5-6 junior Kylie Ellsworth and 5-6 sophomore point guard Graci Harris. Seniors Ali Isbell, a guard, and Jade Smith, a 6-1 post, are key figures in the rotation along with 6-0 junior post MacKenzy Mouton, 5-6 junior guard Kylee Sander and 5-6 junior guard Hailey Smith. The Lady Eagles currently are riding a 10-game victory streak, including their final nine games en route to a perfect 12-0 record in District 18-5A. Georgetown is currently ranked ninth in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches 5A poll and seventh in the Texas Girls Coaches Association 5A rankings. Magnolia West is unranked.
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LADY EAGLES ROSTER
No. — Player (class, pos.) Height
10 — Maya Perry (jr., FW) 5-7
13 — Kylee Sander (jr. G) 5-6
14 — Ali Isbell (sr., G) 5-6
15 — Hailey Hanson (jr., G) 5-5
20 — Hailey Smith (jr., G) 5-6
21 — Lauren Woodard (so., P) 5-11
22 — Samari O’Brien (sr., FW) 5-7
24 — Kylie Ellsworth jr., G) 5-6
25 — Graci Harris (so., G) 5-6
30 — MacKenzy Mouton (jr., P-F) 6-0
32 — Jaelyn Knight (sr., F) 5-11
33 — Mercedes Robledo (jr., F) 5-8
35 — Vyctorya Lehy (so., P) 5-11
42 — Jade Smith (sr., P) 6-1
44 — Dylan Jones (fr., P) 5-10
50 — McCall Hampton (jr., P) 5-9
54 — Alicia King (sr., P) 6-0
Assists: Kevin Spruill, Katie Youngblood, Tosha Doherty.
Athletics trainer: Vanessa Redeaux.
Student trainers: Amber Billingsley, Jessica Roppolo.
Managers: Chloe Sutton Lexie Mullen, Rachel Heine, Celeste Valdez.
TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF BASKETBALL COACHES
(Released Monday, Feb. 11)
(Records through Feb. 9 provided by TABC)
Class 5A
- Mansfield Timberview (34-1). 2. Amarillo (30-4). 3. Kerrville Tivy (32-1). 4. Manvel (33-3). 5. Fort Bend Hightower (33-2). 6. Cedar Park (29-3). 7. San Antonio Veterans Memorial (27-6). 8. Royse City (31-3). 9. GEORGETOWN (22-10). 10. Frisco Liberty (26-10). 11. Frisco Lone Star (24-8). 12. Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial (29-5). 13. Pflugerville (24-10). 14. Austin Crockett (31-5). 15. Lubbock Cooper (26-5). 16. Birdville (25-7). 17. Richmond Foster (30-7). 18. College Station (31-4). 19. Corpus Christi Flour Bluff (26-5). 20. Corpus Christi Tuloso-Midway (26-5). 21. Lufkin (26-5). 22. Mansfield Legacy (25-8). 23. Dallas South Oak Cliff (22-9). 24. Wylie East (22-10); 25. El Paso Andres (29-4).
TEXAS GIRLS COACHES ASSOCIATION
(Released Monday, Feb. 11)
(NOTE: TGCA poll reduced from 25 teams to 10 for the playoffs)
Class 5A
- Mansfield Timberview. 2. Amarillo. 3. Kerrville Tivy. 4. Cedar Park. 5. Fort Bend Hightower. 6. Royse City. 7. GEORGETOWN. 8. Manvel. 9. Lufkin. 10. El Paso Andress.