Lady Panthers featuring another freshman standout

Colleyville Heritage’s girls basketball program has seen its share of freshman phenoms.

It started with post Porche’ Torrance in the early 2000s, followed by fluid shooter Alexia Standish later in the decade.

Now the stage opens for Bryn Gerlich, a 5-10 slash type of player. Not only can she play the block with a series of pretty polished post moves, she can step out and hit a 15-footer or extend out and dial up from three-point range.

For coach Dianna Sager, there really was no debate as to whether Gerlich was going to play on the varsity. The question was how much could Gerlich contribute. You can definitely call Gerlich being ahead of schedule, as she’s averaging 18.6 points per game.

“She’s a hard match-up,” Sager said. “When I watched her in eighth grade, I could tell she has a great basketball IQ. And I think it means a lot that she’s been around the game all her life.”

The native of Canyon moved to North Texas in 2013, when her mother, Krista, became the head coach at UT-Arlington. Krista has been a lifelong successful coach in both the high school and collegiate level. She also coached her daughter’s select team.

“I had a ball in my hands before I could walk,” Gerlich said. “But I fell in love with the game the first time I ever played it. My mom just worked with me to continue to get better. She was tougher on me because she wanted me to do my best. I don’t think I would be in this position without her.”

The two toughest adjustments any freshman has to make to the varsity game are adjusting to the speed and the physical nature. Facing a number of players who can still stay under control at top speed became a lesson to learn.

Really, there was no light that came on for Gerlich to validate her being on Colleyville Heritage’s roster. However, her career-high 29-point outing against Crowley on Nov. 21 emerged through inspiration. Although the Lady Panthers lost the game, 52-41, Gerlich faced a select team teammate and used every play in her arsenal to keep her team in the game.

Since then, the box scores show a number of high teens and low 20-point totals. So it’s clear why she is this team’s leading scorer.

“I was not expecting this kind of a start,” Gerlich said. “Really, it’s been kind of overwhelming. It’s been great and my teammates are really supportive. I know they’ve been looking for me. But I want to keep being a good teammate for them.”

The location of Gerlich’s emergence may also serve to her benefit. Instead of being the marquee name in a small town in West Texas where everybody knows who she is, she can fit in an environment where that isn’t the case.

“I think she likes it now,” Sager said. “I don’t think she liked it much when she first got here, but it seems like she has a good feel where she is, and she doesn’t have to face all of the attention.”

Colleyville Heritage (10-7, 2-0 in District 7-6A) was set to open play in the Duncanville tournament Monday against Frisco Liberty. District play resumes at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Euless Trinity.

Grapevine update

The Lady Mustangs (16-2, 2-0 in District 6-5A) were in the Saginaw Boswell tournament starting Dec. 29. District play resumes on Tuesday with a home game against Fort Worth Carter-Riverside.

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Lady Panthers featuring another freshman standout."