Keller girls storm out to huge lead against SL Carroll, hold off Dragons in district
Cambridge Mathews wasn’t going to have a bad game Wednesday night as Keller hosted Southlake Carroll in a key District 4-6A showdown pitting two 6-1 teams.
She was honored before tip-off for scoring her 1,000th career point last week.
Then she came out on fire.
Mathews scored the Indians’ first eight points and Keller got out to a 16-0 start, beating Carroll, 50-43. The Indians improved to 7-1 in district, keeping pace with first place, and 17-4 overall.
Mathews finished with a game-high 26 points.
“We had good crowd so I wanted to come out and bring it against a good district team,” she said. “Carroll always plays us hard. It was a good game for sure.”
Mathews drove to the basket for two, hit a corner 3-pointer and was fouled on a fast-break attempt as Keller led 8-0. Renee Chmiel, Sarah Graves, Ava Dunagan and Mallory McQuietor also scored to help the Indians take an 18-4 lead into the second.
“It was awesome. It was a good feeling. We were all hitting our shots,” Mathews said. “We worked really hard in the first half and the coaches just told us to never let up.”
Carroll (16-6, 6-2) would push back with baskets from Brittney Flexer (Missouri Southern State) and Kalila Fambro. A 3-pointer from the corner by Southwestern University commit Kelsey Boyette cut the lead to 19-11 midway through the period.
Mathews hit McQuietor for an easy layup on the next possession.
Kim Cohen stole a pass attempt and was fouled. She made 1 of 2 at the line and Keller led 25-14 at intermission.
The Indians took away any momentum the Dragons may had when they opened the third quarter with another 8-0 run. Graves found Dunagan in the paint for two and Gabby Czajkowski hit a jumper just inside the arc to make it 37-19.
Carroll was able to get it to single digits with baskets by Kaelyn Riley and Boyette, who finished with 12 points.
Sophomore Camryn Tade scored a team-high 14 for the Dragons.
McQuietor chipped in six points for Keller. Cohen and Dunagan added five each.
“We wanted to get up more and press them the whole game,” Mathews said. “They play a slower pace and like to slow us down so we came in with a lot more intensity.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 10:26 AM.
