Mansfield Summit, Mansfield Timberview girls open playoffs with bi-district wins

The Mansfield Summit girls basketball team looked outmatched on paper against Fort Worth Wyatt.

The Chaparrals were the top seed out of District 7-5A and had only three losses in 25 games while Summit was below .500 for the season and the fourth seed out of 8-5A.

But the Jaguars jumped on Wyatt early then kept the Chaparrals at arm’s length the rest of the way in a 56-43 Class 5A bi-district playoff on Friday night at Arlington High School.

“Getting the lead early was big for us,” said Summit senior guard Ashton Mansker. “When we get up we sometimes struggle to stay up, but I felt like that we really improved on that today as a team.”

Summit (10-11) advances to the area round and will face Grapevine (21-5) at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Colleyville Heritage, weather permitting.

Summit led 9-0 behind Mansker and Sydney Rice who had two and four points, respectively, during the run.

The Summit lead hovered around double digits until early in the second quarter when Wyatt (22-4) rallied.

Brooklyn Burks, who led the Chaparrals with 10 points, stole consecutive inbound passes and converted both layups to cut Summit’s lead to 16-10 with 7:23 left before halftime.

That would be as close as Wyatt would get. Mansker, who led the Jags along with Destiny Whitaker with 13 points each, drove the lane for two and freshman Jaiona Jackson was fouled on a lay in and completed the three-point play to put Summit back up by 11 at the 5:28 mark.

“Sydney Rice always does a really good job for us and Ashton Mansker, our senior, held it down,” said Summit coach Amy Gillum. “This was really a team effort and our scoring was really balanced.”

Balanced it was. After Mansker and Whitaker, Jackson added nine points, Alyssa Taylor had eight, and Rice finished with seven.

Summit built the lead to 20 points with 4:31 left in the third quarter after a basket by Alyssa Taylor, but Wyatt made one last push.

An 8-0 run fueled by a three-point play by Alexius Taylor and a three-point basket by Morgan Livingston cut the lead to 48-39 with 3 minutes left in the game.

But three Wyatt players fouled out after that and Summit hit six-of-six free throws down the stretch to put the game away.

The Jags made 1 of 6 from the free throw line to start, but converted 11 of 16 after that.

“I’m very excited because I thought that COVID was going to take over and not let us play and us get to this point,” said Mansker. “I was really happy when we got to play in the summertime and then was able to start this season.”

Livingston, Alexius Taylor, and Cortnee’ Brown added eight points each for Wyatt.

“We’re just grateful for the win,” added Gillum. “With COVID, us having to quarantine twice and graduating eight seniors from last year’s team it was tough for us to get this win. Anything can happen and why not us.”

Mansfield Timberview 82, FW Trimble Tech 39

The Wolves opened up a 10-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back, rolling to a win over the Bulldogs in a Class 5A bi-district girls basketball game on Friday afternoon at Arlington High School.

Timberview (18-8) will advance to face No. 14 Lake Dallas (23-5) in the area round at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Irving High School.

Stephanie Mosely led all scorers with 24 points for the Wolves including 10 in the opening period. Mosely went 6 of 7 from the free throw line.

Chrishawn Coleman added 18 points, including three three-pointers, and Tamaiya Mims chipped in 13 for Timberview.

Janyia Tomlinson scored nine of her 11 points in the first quarter for Trimble Tech (18-7). Sha’Coria Hill added 11 points and Jada Hollie had nine for the Bulldogs.

This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 12:31 AM.