Southlake Carroll girls end Timber Creek season, clinches regional semifinal berth
The last time the Southlake Carroll girls basketball team reached the regional semifinals, Camryn Tade wasn’t born and Brittney Flexer and Kelsey Boyette were in diapers.
But the trio played an integral part Thursday night in Carroll’s 40-27 win over Keller Timber Creek in the Class 6A Region 1 quarterfinals at Northwest HS. Carroll also beat Timber Creek in two previous District 4-6A games, 50-45 and 33-31.
“One of the first things we said beating a team three times is hard ... and it’s been really, really close. They’re a great team,” Boyette said. “We came in, knowing we had to play our defense. We know what to do, we just played them like three weeks ago.”
The Dragons (23-6) advance to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2004 and will face Plano East at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Dallas ISD’s Loos Field House in Addison. Plano East beat Arlington Martin on Wednesday.
“It’s so crazy. It’s so fun,” said Tade, a sophomore who finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists. “All season, we’ve kind of been working towards this so it’s really cool to make it this far.”
“The heart on this team is unreal. I don’t know if it shows, but their tenacity and unselfishness, we have 12 players on the team and all of them truly wants what’s best for the team,” added Carroll coach Robyn McCoart, who played and graduated from Carroll. “This is a special group.”
Boyette, who will continue her career at Southwestern University in Georgetown, came off the bench and hit two 3-pointers as Carroll built up a 12-4 lead in the second quarter. The Carroll defense gave Timber Creek fits all night as the Dragons doubled up the Falcons, 8-4 in the opening period and 18-9 at intermission.
Boyette matched Timber Creek’s first-half output by knocking down three 3-pointers. Brittney Flexer (Missouri Southern State) knocked down a trey on Carroll’s opening possession. She finished with nine points, four rebounds and three assists.
“I walked into the gym and shot a shot and I was like, I like this gym. This is going to be a good game,” Boyette said.
Timber Creek (17-7), in the quarterfinals for the first time, chipped away to 12-9, but Carroll scored six straight to end the half on Boyette’s third 3-pointer and a 3-point play by Tade.
Carroll extended the lead to 22-9 early in the third and 28-11 with 4:23 left on a Kaelyn Riley 3-pointer from the left wing. Riley added four rebounds and three steals.
Maya Linton, who led the Falcons with 13 points, hit two threes before the quarter ended to help Timber Creek finish on a 11-3 run that got it within 31-22 heading into the fourth.
The Dragons scored the first five points of the fourth, including a long jumper from Tade.
“We broke down the game film and Tina does a great job at switching defenses,” McCoart said. “Last time we played them, we were just running the same thing regardless of their defense and that’s not good basketball. They started getting steals. The biggest difference tonight was we took care of the ball in the fourth quarter.”
Deja Lumsden chipped in six points, two rebounds and two blocks for Timber Creek.
“This is a great group of girls. They still fought until the end,” Timber Creek coach Tina DeMichele said. “We just came up short. Give credit to Southlake. They did their thing on defense that they always do and we struggled. But I couldn’t be more proud of these kids.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2021 at 12:59 AM.
