Lady Dragons finish perfect, look to postseason challenges

The Carroll girls basketball team finished its regular season with a hard fought 61-46 victory over Colleyville Heritage on Feb. 10 to finish the District 7-6A season perfect at 12-0.

That was the goal for the Lady Dragons (24-6), who began the Class 6A Region I playoffs against South Grand Prairie in the bi-district round Tuesday at the Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City. Carroll carried a 16-game winning streak dating back to Dec. 9. See www.dfwvarsity.com for results.

Had Carroll won, it would have advanced to the area round, where it would face the winner of Northwest vs. Flower Mound. Carroll has not lost a bi-district round playoff game under head coach Teri Morrison.

There was nothing easy about the win over the Lady Panthers. Carroll led by one (42-41) after three quarters. It took a 19-5 fourth quarter for them to pull away.

But the good news is that the Lady Dragons received a strong performance from junior post Anna Hurlburt. She scored 15 points.

Hurlburt’s presence is essential if Carroll has hopes to finally clear the hurdle of the regional quarterfinals and advance to the Region I tournament. Carroll needs the Hurlburt who has scored 15 points or more in three of her final five games (18 against Richland on Feb. 3 and 15 against Hurst L.D. Bell on Jan. 23).

Assessing Region I

Carroll has a pretty good feel for the state’s arguably toughest region. During the non-district season, the Lady Dragons went 2-3 in five games against teams from the region which made the postseason. Carroll defeated Midland Lee, split two meetings with Arlington Bowie and lost to Duncanville and Keller.

And if it breaks the way Carroll hoped it would, it was looking at a Region I quarterfinal meeting with Duncanville. In the first meeting back in November, Carroll and Duncanville were tied, 23-23, at the half before the Pantherettes used an 18-7 third quarter to pull away.

Of course, this is one game at a time. But the Lady Dragons know they have held their own. That’s why Morrison put together arguably her toughest non-district schedule in the time she’s been at Carroll.

Plus, they have shown the ability to play at an up-tempo pace or play in the half court. Carroll won two games when it didn’t score 35 points. It beat Bowie, 34-31, and Euless Trinity, 32-30.

Improving at the line

The most telling problem for the Lady Dragons is their frustrations shooting free throws. Carroll is shooting only 62 percent at the line. Senior point guard Kennedy Leonard was over 70 percent before a 4-12 performance against Colleyville Heritage dropped her below that line.

Priscilla Smeenge is the team’s best free throw shooter, at 75 percent, among those players who have double figure attempts. The strategy for Carroll opponents going into the playoffs is putting the Lady Dragons at the line in close and late situations. It’s going to be up to Carroll to come up with the right answers.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Lady Dragons finish perfect, look to postseason challenges."