Lady Panthers, Mustangs tuning up for playoffs
The Colleyville Heritage and Grapevine girls basketball teams are playing out the rest of the season and preparing for the playoffs. Meanwhile, Southlake Carroll has been eliminated from postseason contention — a very unusual season for a perennial power.
Colleyville Heritage (23-6, 11-0 District 8-5A): The Lady Panthers are in the postseason for the 14th time in the 16 seasons Dianna Sager has been the head coach. Sager also picked up career win No. 400 in the 63-35 decision over Fort Worth Dunbar on Jan. 24.
Sager and her staff used this past week to continue to tweak lineups, allow players who don’t normally see the floor some playing time and make sure her team is as fresh as possible when the playoffs start in two weeks.
The Lady Panthers also easily handled Fort Worth Eastern Hills last week, 67-20. They played host to Birdville on Tuesday and play at Fort Worth Polytechnic on Friday.
Recently, Sager has been playing junior forward Bryn Gerlich more on the perimeter and letting her work on her jump shot. For the year, Gerlich is averaging 19.8 points, shooting 56 percent for the season and 74 percent at the foul line.
“Our players have been really good,” Sager said. “We’ve set some different goals each game on what we want to do on offense and defense. The kids understand what’s expected here because they’re driven. They know the playoffs are a one-game guarantee.”
For the season, the Lady Panthers are shooting 71 percent.
Grapevine (16-9, 10-1 District 8-5A): For the third time in as many seasons, Lindy Slagle’s program is in the postseason. But perhaps this program found some momentum in this past Friday’s 48-37 victory over Fort Worth Dunbar.
Notably, that was sophomore wing Symone Wesley’s most dynamic performance. She scored 15 points — 11 of the team’s 17 points in the fourth quarter — and came up with several key hustle plays to save possessions. Wesley also collected 14 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end.
Slagle saw a very balanced score sheet, as freshman forward Dasha MacMillan (6-0) added 12 points and senior forward Jessi Prater had 10. Senior guard Tatum Tellin just missed a triple double with nine points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
If Slagle can get that kind of production down the stretch, that could add up to a decent playoff run.
“Every season is different,” Slagle said. “This team has shown a lot of maturity. They’ve had to endure a lot of things with injuries, me not being there [because of the birth of her son] and [junior varsity coach] Emma Jackson, who had her baby in September.”
With sophomore guard Samantha Tatum lost for the season with a broken wrist, Slagle said sophomore Rylee Hanna will handle the majority of the point guard duties.
“We ran a two point guard system,” Slagle said. “So we’re good there. We’re also going to have senior Maura McGregor help with the ball handling, too.”
Grapevine played host to Fort Worth Carter-Riverside on Tuesday and then has senior night Friday against Richland.
Carroll (8-19, 1-10 District 5-6A): The Lady Dragons are officially out of the playoff hunt and must now look toward the future. They have Hurst L.D. Bell on Tuesday and play host to Lewisville Hebron on Friday. That is senior night.
This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Lady Panthers, Mustangs tuning up for playoffs."