Wylie dominates in second half of comeback win against Cooper in girls basketball action

A strong finish kept the Wylie girls basketball team in the District 4-5A hunt with a 52-44 win against Cooper at Cougar Gym on Friday night.

Though the Lady Bulldogs (12-15 overall, 2-5 district) scored the first 11 points, they didn't lead after the first quarter or at halftime. It took a strong third quarter to take a two-point lead into the fourth quarter, whenWylie would finish the game.

"We jumped out to a great start, I think we were up 11-0 and let that evaporate pretty quickly," Wylie coach Amy Powell said. "What we really were unhappy with at halftime was our defense. We gave up 30 points at half, and that hasn't been typical for us this year. Our defense had to get better, we told them it had to get better and they only scored 14 points in the second half.

"It really wasn't our best game all the way around, but tonight it was good enough to win."

After going down 11-0, the Cooper offense went to work and scored the next 10 points. The Lady Cougars (13-14, 0-5) finished the first quarter on an 18-5 run to lead 18-16.

Cooper outscored Wylie 12-8 in the second quarter to take a 30-24 lead into halftime.

But the offense slowed in the second half, including a scoring drought that lasted almost eight minutes from the end of the third quarter to the final two minutes of the fourth.

"We were on 37 (points) for about a full quarter," Cooper coach Arsenio Geter said. "We couldn't score, we couldn't put the ball in the hole. We got every look we wanted. Capitalized on it in the first half and just couldn't capitalize in the second half. It's hard to win games when you can't put the ball in the hole."

Caroline Steadman's 3-pointer with 1:06 left in the third quarter gave the Lady Bulldogs a 36-34 lead. Karrigan Parrott, who led Cooper with 12 points, answered right back with a 3 of her own to put Cooper back up 37-34.

But Kenyah Maroney's bucket to end the third quarter put Wylie up 38-37 going into the fourth quarter. A lead the Lady Bulldogs never gave up.

"We just needed to handle some ball pressure better," Powell said. "We felt like they were speeding us up in the first half. We needed to slow down and play at our pace and I thought we did a better job of that in the second half. A little bit more composure, a little bit more patience on the offensive end … that limited some of their possessions, as well."

The patience led to fewer turnovers which led to fewer easy points for the Lady Coogs. And, without scoring, it was hard for Cooper to get into its press defense, which had been effective in the first half.

"In order to pressure the ball, you have to score to set up your pressure," Geter said. "Without putting the ball in the hole, it's almost impossible for us. We're small, we're undersized, so we're trying to play the full length of the court instead of getting down and battle inside. We're trying to get the ball inside and trying to get people to foul us, but it seems like they keep blocking us. It is tough to do what we want to do when we're not scoring."

Cooper didn't score again until a pair of Parrott free throws with 1:49 left to play. By then, the Lady Bulldogs led 45-39 and the Lady Cougars were out of time.

"I looked up at one point in time and told Coach (Peyton) Decker, 'They've only scored seven points this half,'" Powell said. "We kind of hang our hat on defense. Still have a lot of ways to get better offensively. But it's a tough district. Even though it's down the street, to win on the road, it's hard."

Three Lady Bulldogs finished in double figures offensively, led by Steadman with 16 points while Kaylan Adams scored 12 and Maroney finished with 11. Mycala Reed added eight.

Steadman, Adams and Maroney scored eight points each in the second half

"We got a lot of and-1s down there in the second half," Powell said. "We felt like Kaylan didn't get enough touches in the first half, for whatever reason the ball just wasn't finding her. We did talk about it at halftime, we thought Kaylan needed some more touches, we ran a couple sets for her to get some shots down low. … We had some kids step up tonight, it was nice."

The Lady Cougars are usually the smaller team on the court, and with young players it has been tough to get results and score. Kyla Speights had 11 points to go with Parrott's 12 while Alliyah Ralston and J'Lee Sloan finished with seven points each.

Cooper goes into the second half of district play winless, but the effort and fight has been there.

"They're playing hard. There's not a single team that doesn't have a girl over 6 foot, and we don't have one of those," Geter said. "My kids are playing hard, we're young and we're playing tough inside. This district is brutal. I don't think there's been a girl under 6-1 that we've played, so we lose the battle in the paint almost every night, so it makes it tougher for us to find different ways to score."

It was the second win in a row for the Lady Bulldogs, who started district 0-3. But Tuesday's win against Lubbock High, combined with its loss to Lubbock Monterey on Friday, puts Wylie in a playoff spot midway through the district schedule.

But things don't get any easier as they face the second-place Lady Plainsmen on the road Tuesday.

"You're hoping some momentum carries over to the second half," Powell said. "The second half of district we have three home games, so we're hoping that having some home court advantage in the second half will benefit us a little bit. But our district is tough. We're going to enjoy this one tonight, but we've got Monterey on Tuesday night and they've got two really good players that we're going to have to figure out how to stop on the road. It doesn't get any easier."

Jordan Hofeditz covers Abilene high schools and colleges, Big Country schools and other local sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jhofeditz. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

DISTRICT 4-5A

Wylie 52, Cooper 44

Wylie 16 8 14 14—52

Cooper 18 12 7 7—44

WYLIE (12-15, 2-3) — Camri Travis 0 1-2 1, Caroline Steadman 4 5-6 16, Mycala Reed 2 2-2 8, Kaylan Adams 4 4-5 12, Kenyah Maroney 3 5-7 11, Indiah Maroney 1 2-5 4. Totals 14 19-27 52.

COOPER (13-14, 0-5) — Jazlyn Hatcher 2 0-0 4, Alliyah Ralston 3 0-0 7, Ashlynn French 0 1-2 1, Asjha Cherry 1 0-0 2, Kerrigan Parrott 3 4-4 12, Kyla Speights 3 3-4 11, J'Lee Sloan 3 0-2 7. Totals 15 8-12 44.

3-Point Goals — Wylie 5 (Steadman 3, Reed 2); Cooper (Ralston 1, Parrott 2, Speights 1, Sloan 1). Total Fouls — Wylie 15, Cooper 20. Fouled Out — Cooper: Ralston. Technical Fouls — None.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Wylie girls dominate in second half of comeback win against Cooper