Lady Panthers don’t want to share title with rivals

The Colleyville Heritage girls basketball team (25-6, 13-0 in District 8-5A) approaches Tuesday’s regular season finale at home against Grapevine (18-9, 12-1 in district) thinking one word: outright.

While head coach Dianna Sager’s program has claimed at least a share of the district championship (the fourth overall in Sager’s tenure), there wasn’t anything appetizing about sharing it with the Lady Mustangs. To recognize this game’s importance and mute any distractions, senior night was moved up to Jan. 31 against Birdville.

“They did a good job of making sure they were playing with the right frame of mind,” Sager said. “I just didn’t want to have the emotions of senior night come on the same night with so much at stake. There were some emotions with the ceremony, but not as many because they knew they had one more home game to play. We want to have T-shirts that read district champions, not co-district champions. That’s been a big deal to our kids.”

The Lady Panthers had not had a game decided by single digits in more than one month, when they were in the Duncanville tournament. But there is some good that comes out of playing the GCISD rival.

Grapevine is going to the postseason. These two played a pretty interesting matchup Jan. 13 in Grapevine. Colleyville Heritage won, 48-35.

“I really like a good opponent to have as you enter the playoffs,” Sager said. “So when [Grapevine coach Lindy Lombard] and I saw the draws and that we were playing each other last game, that was definitely a good thing. You don’t want to play somebody where you’re going to win by 50. This is the kind of game you need.”

Sager is not exaggerating about the point differential. Colleyville Heritage’s average margin of victory in its first 13 district games was 46 points.

Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s regular season finale, the Lady Mustangs knew they were going to either face Fort Worth O.D. Wyatt or Fort Worth Southwest out of District 7-5A in the Region I bi-district round. Colleyville Heritage would face one of those two as well.

Lombard mentioned that there had been some discussions about playing a double header with Colleyville Heritage. That was not finalized. But she said she would prefer playing on a Monday like she has in the previous two seasons Grapevine has made the playoffs.

Meanwhile, this team likes the late-game drama. In this past Friday’s 26-25 victory against Richland, sophomore guard Rylee Hanna scored the game winner in the final three seconds. Two weeks prior (Jan. 20), a Symone Wesley basket with 2.1 seconds to play lifted Grapevine to a 23-21 win over Birdville.

Carroll (9-20, 2-11 District 5-6A): Teri Morrison’s Lady Dragons wrap up the season on Tuesday at Flower Mound. Carroll is hoping to play spoiler. While the district playoff teams are known, the Lady Jaguars were in a three-way tie for second with Hurst L.D. Bell and Lewisville. Euless Trinity has wrapped up the district championship.

Going with a smaller lineup in these final games, Carroll has broken 50 points in two of three games. It also had a lead over L.D. Bell midway through the fourth quarter on Jan. 31 before falling, 41-33.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Lady Panthers don’t want to share title with rivals."