Grapevine girls hoops dominating with defense
One of the game goals Grapevine girls basketball coach Lindy Lombard stresses to her team is to hold the opposing team to less than 30 points.
In a week that led to the program clinching the outright district championship, the Lady Mustangs (15-11, 11-0 in 6-5A) held their top two challengers in Birdville and Lake Dallas to 26 and 24 points respectively. Through the first 11 district games, eight of Grapevine’s opponents have scored fewer than 30 points.
Grapevine closed out the regular season Tuesday at Fort Woth Polytechnic and should have finished undefeated for the second consecutive year. And given how this team has smothered its Fort Worth ISD opponents, Poly should have been the ninth opponent to be held to less than 30 points. Grapevine won the first meeting against the Lady Parrots, 59-12.
“We’ve just done a very good job of paying attention to detail and what it means to cover gaps and make sure we lock down on people,” Lombard said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of playing off the ball.”
Different undefeated
When Grapevine went undefeated in 2014-2015, it carried a heavy senior roster led the by the likes of Mandi Routon. With the kind of roster turnover that this team went through in 2015-2016, Lombard appreciates the accomplishment. This team introduced seven new players.
“You have two completely different teams in two different seasons,” Lombard said. “What I like about this group is that when we played against the stronger teams the second time through the district, we played at a higher level. It shows our growth. We’re not quite where we want to be. But you can see it.”
Compare the scores and that could be the evidence. Grapevine defeated Lake Dallas in the first meeting, 47-34, and Birdville in the first meeting, 54-39. So the fact that each opponent’s scoring went down in double figures is indication of how the Lady Mustangs defense has become much more stingy.
District 5-5A race
There’s really no telling who Grapevine will play from District 5-5A in the Class 5A Region I bi-district round. Even through that district finishes on Tuesday, it appears that there could be some scrambling for that fourth playoff position between Saginaw Chisholm Trail and Wichita Falls.
Chisholm Trail (7-6), which is in fourth, led fifth-place Old High (6-7) by one game. Chisholm Trail finished with Saginaw Boswell. Old High played Denton. Both Boswell and Denton are in the playoffs and battling for second. Should Chisholm Trail and Old High finish in a tie, there would likely be a playoff play-in game toward the end of this week to settle it. If not, Grapevine should be facing Chisholm Trail.
Notable
Grapevine is out-rebounding its opponents this season by an average of 12.5 per game.
Colleyville Heritage update
The math is pretty simple for the Lady Panthers (21-10, 7-4 in 7-6A). If they defeated Carroll on Tuesday in their home and regular season finale, they would finish in third place. A loss and they would finish fourth.
Colleyville Heritage cannot finish second because of the tiebreaker with Hurst L.D. Bell. The Lady Blue Raiders won both meetings this year, including 48-46 this past Friday. Class 6A Region I bi-district opponents would either be national power Duncanville or Cedar Hill.
Notable
Guard Hanna Verdi, who has been playing with the team for the last three weeks after being cleared from suffering a torn ACL in the spring, is only playing with a sleeve on her knee and not a brace.
“She just changes the tempo of the game,” head coach Dianna Sager said. “Her energy is something that we really need.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Grapevine girls hoops dominating with defense."