Quick start propels Aledo girls to win over Fort Worth Southwest

By Greg Bogomol

Special to the Star-Telegram

ALEDO -- The Aledo girls scored the first 16 points against Fort Worth Southwest, with six players scoring in the opening six minutes, and the Bearcats never looked back in a 75-35 District 7-4A victory over the Raiders.

Mallory Powell led the way with four points during the opening run, and Kaylee Black and Justis Szczepanski-Beavers each added three.

Southwest (9-14, 1-4) missed its first eight shots, finally scoring on a basket by Amanda Wortham with 1:04 to play in the first quarter.

"We had lots of energy today. It's the first game we've played with everyone for the first time all year," Aledo coach Rusty Johnson said. "Today was an example of what we have become. We've had a lot of tremendous athletes the past few years, but this group is every unselfish and is seeing the floor a lot better."

Powell led the Bearcats (17-6, 5-0) with 24 points, and Szczepanski-Beavers added 19 in the victory. Overall, Aledo made 25 of 57 shots on the afternoon.

Wortham led Southwest with 15 points, and Tearria Johnson had 11. The Raiders made just three of their first 24 shots and found themselves down 40-12 at halftime.

Southwest matched Aledo point for point for the first three minutes of the second half and was only outscored by one in the third quarter, but the Bearcats started the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run to extend their lead to 64-24 with 5:14 to play.

Szczepanski-Beavers had six points during the run, while Black and Powell combined for the other five.

"Adding [sophomore guard] Alyssa [Dry] after her missing the past 19 games and what she adds really makes a difference," Johnson said. "I just told the girls at the half that we've got to get better. We can't worry about the score or who the opponent is. We aren't trying to run up the score, but we've got to get nine girls some quality minutes."

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