Waxahachie holds off Mansfield Lake Ridge comeback to clinch playoff berth

By Josh Bowe

Special to the Star-Telegram

WAXAHACHIE -- Waxahachie survived a fourth-quarter scare to beat Mansfield Lake Ridge 53-47 on Tuesday night at Waxahachie High School, getting just enough stops down the stretch to earn District 15-4A's last playoff seed.

For Waxahachie coach Lesli Priebe, the fourth quarter felt like an eternity. She watched her team's lead against the Eagles shrink from 26 points at halftime to just two with less than two minutes left.

"It could not have moved fast enough," Priebe said.

Waxahachie (18-14, 7-7 District 15-4A) forced two critical Lake Ridge turnovers once the lead was trimmed to 49-47 after a layup from Lake Ridge's Paige Demery.

Those turnovers led to Dawn King and Ja'Mayia Perez scoring back-to-back buckets to give Waxahachie the final margin of victory with 11 seconds left.

"We went to no-help because they started to hit a lot of 3s," Priebe said. "We just wanted to limit them to one shot and then grab the rebound."

Lake Ridge (11-20, 6-8) got back into the game with long-range baskets. After hitting no 3-pointers in the first half and trailing 37-11, the Eagles knocked down four 3s in the second half, with three of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Kylie Collins trimmed the Indians' lead to 46-39 with back-to-back 3s with 4:10 left in the fourth quarter. Lake Ridge used a full-court press to force Waxahachie into turnovers and into missed shots throughout the second half.

"In the second half, I thought we tried to slow it down a little bit too much," Priebe said. "I'm really proud of the kids to pull it out."

Perez had a game-high 17 points and sealed the game for Waxahachie. Maya Hawkins led Lake Ridge with nine points.

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