The girls’ basketball team opens the playoffs tonight against Colleyville Heritage at 6:30 p.m at Southlake Carroll High School.
The Lady Farmers made the postseason in dramatic fashion with a 60-53 overtime win over Coppell last Tuesday, their last possible chance for playoffs. This is the first trip back to the playoffs after two years.
However, just because they haven’t gone to playoffs for the past two seasons does not mean that this season was smooth sailing.
“We’ve struggled a lot this year,” head coach Charlotte Jones said. “And I know a lot of people didn’t expect us to go to the playoffs, even I know the girls didn’t really expect it, but that was one of our goals, to try to get in, and we did.”
There were many setbacks for the team, such as injuries or illnesses for key players.
“We overcame a few obstacles that we had, sicknesses and injuries, and I thought we did a pretty good job of working hard to get in [to the playoffs], so I’m proud of the kids,” Jones said.
Not only were there a lot of injuries, but there were many games where the girls did not perform as well as some players thought they should.
“We lost some games that we shouldn’t have lost,” senior Jada Butts said. “But we still always thought that we could make it [to playoffs].”
The girls took a lot of confidence into the final district game.
“I expected it [the win],” senior Precious Agu said. “Because I knew we could beat them. We’ve beaten them before, so I knew we could beat them again.”
Colleyville Heritage comes into tonight’s game with an overall record of 25-10, 13-1 in the district. The Lady Farmers were 5-24 in the regular season and 3-7 in district. Heritage has also beat Irving MacArthur this season, a team that has eliminated the Lady Farmers in the past. The girls, however, said they don’t care about the stats.
“It’s just that hunger, so we’re not gonna think about the past, and we know that’s still gonna sting, but we’re just gonna use that as our ammo, to drive us past whatever reaches us,” senior Nikeia Scott said.
Along with going to playoffs, the basketball team has another achievement.
“I am a nominee to be on the McDonald’s All-American Team, and they let the team rosters out on Feb. 14 to know if I made it or not,” Butts said.
The McDonald’s All-American teams consist of the top high school basketball players in America and Canada. The teams play a single exhibition in an East vs. West format.
