Colleyville Heritage ends Irving MacArthur's 42-game district winning streak

By Travis L. Brown

Special to the Star-Telegram

IRVING -- The Colleyville Heritage girls basketball team did something Friday night that no other team has done in almost three years.

Heritage handed Irving MacArthur its first district loss since Jan. 15, 2010, 56-45. MacArthur's streak ends at 42 games.

"That's a big deal," Colleyville Heritage coach Dianna Sager said. "We've finished second to them the last two years. They've been our only district loss. We were excited about the opportunity."

Despite the final score, the streak-ending win did not come easy.

MacArthur (20-7, 4-1 in District 6-5A) ran a 2-3 zone trap on defense that frustrated Heritage's attempts to set up an half-court offense.

Other than several points in transition, swinging the ball inside to the posts then back out to the perimeter gave Heritage (17-9, 5-0) its only good looks of the game, but they capitalized.

Heritage hit seven 3-pointers, including four from senior guard Heather Roberts, who finished with 22 points.

"She can shoot it," Sager said. "When she feels it she can go, and she has the green light to shoot whenever."

Roberts also provided a spark of energy with several hustle plays, including a charge taken early in the game and finishing a 3-point play after taking a hard foul.

Sager said her effort has been seen all season, including a game against Richland in which she took six charges.

MacArthur managed to take a 20-16 lead going into the half, but could only hold off Heritage for one more quarter before the Panthers took their largest lead of the game, until the final score, of 10 points.

MacArthur junior guard Tory Jacobs picked up a game-high 28 points, mostly from skillful drives into the lane through traffic.

With the win, Heritage remains the only undefeated team in district play and controls its destiny in the district race. That challenge, however, remains no easy task.

"It was a big win," Sager said. "We were the two that were 4-0. I don't think anyone is going to go undefeated in this district. I think Bell is really good. I think MacArthur and we are going to be very competitive every night. We would love to finish [the first half of district] 7-0, so that put us in a pretty good spot."

Looking for comments?