North Crowley girls rally in fourth quarter to eliminate Fossil Ridge in bi-district
Eight games in 10 days would be rough on any team, but for the North Crowley girls basketball team, the Panthers went through the gauntlet and still won a playoff game.
North Crowley went through quarantine and came out with a district title.
Then the Panthers rallied to beat Keller Fossil Ridge, 44-41, in a Class 6A Region 1 bi-district girls basketball game Friday afternoon at Haltom High School.
The Panthers will take on San Angelo Central in the second round.
“They kept fighting like they have all season,” North Crowley coach Lori Shead said. “They refused to give up. We just had to stop taking threes, that wasn’t going to get us back in the game or win the game. We told them we had to go to the basket, and the girls are great about being coachable.”
Fossil Ridge, in its first playoff game since 2015, got a 32-26 lead early in the fourth quarter on a layup by Ashia McSwain, but North Crowley responded with a 5-0 run.
The Panthers cut the lead to 32-31 with 6:27 left to play in the game.
“We had to keep up the intensity and stay together as a team to get this win,” said Alaina Payne, who scored nine points for North Crowley.
North Crowley tied the game at 34 with a corner 3-pointer by Jade Goynes, who led all scorers with 20 points, at the 5:07 mark of the final period. The Panthers continued to lead by four throughout the quarter.
“The goal coming out of half was to take smarter shots and execute on offense,” Goynes said. “We had to make sure we played solid defense, limit our fouls and free throws were a clutch part of the game.”
North Crowley led for most of the first quarter, but Fossil Ridge capped off a 10-0 second quarter run with a 3-pointer by Zaria Brown with 4:56 left. North Crowley held Fossil Ridge to two points the rest of the way and trailed 18-15 at halftime.
Jade Masogayo led Fossil Ridge with 13 points.
This story was originally published February 13, 2021 at 4:46 PM.
